Source: WOD Talk Magazine
Thirty teams will be heading to the Mid-Atlantic Regional this weekend (May 23-25, 2014) to compete for one of the three team spots to head to the Games in California. I was privileged to visit five of those teams located in the DMV area (D.C., Maryland, Virginia) to get an inside look at their preparations.
CrossFit Forward
Affiliate Location: Fredericksburg, VA
Website: http://www.crossfitforward.com/
Open Team Rank: 4th
Team Members: Herb Watson (30yo), Kent Ingalls (32yo), Sean Sweeney (22yo), Patrick Kuhns (23yo), Corinna Benz (27yo), Kaja Baum (23yo), Kristen Perez (25yo), Carolanne Kondos (23yo)
Previous Regionals Experience: Kent competed in 2012 & 2013 as an Individual. He also qualified this year as an Individual along with Corinna, Kaja, and Sean.
Why Go Team vs. Individual? “We’d like to go to the games!” –Sean
Team Dynamic: This team seems to be together A LOT. They work out, eat, relax, talk, work out some more, and repeat. They definitely work hard to play hard!
Most Stressful Regional Event: Those strict handstand push-ups in Event 6
Event They’re Looking Forward To: “We’re going to straight up hurt people’s feelings in the thrusters and the rope climbs!” –Sean
Training for the Regionals: Structured team training at least 3 days a week, with additional training sessions throughout the week. They’ve done each full Regional event from start to finish once, but then broken the events up into smaller pieces and variations.
Favorite Workout Music: Bubble butt radio, Hair Nation station, Rick Ross radio
Team Song: Started From the Bottom by Drake
Motivation for Tough Workouts: “The haters.” –Herb
Why I Think They Will Stand Out: They’ve made a lot of progress (according to Kent) and have a lot to prove to those haters that don’t want them to succeed! They also have a team dog – Frisco the Ninja – who is around for their training sessions to bring them good vibes.
CrossFit Syndicate
Affiliate Location: Columbia, MD
Website: http://crossfitsyndicate.com/
Open Team Rank: 6th
Team Members: Brad Weiss (27yo), Dale Thompson (34yo), Jimmy Violand (29yo), Luke Espe (27yo), Christa Giordano (32yo), Christen Wagner (27yo), Rebecca Koch (24yo), Erin Ferner (34yo)
Previous Regionals Experience: This is their first year at Regionals (the Box has only been open 2 years), although some of the team members have previously competed at Regionals through different affiliates.
Team Dynamic: “We try to have a lot of fun training – keep it fresh, but we are all very competitive, and nobody likes to lose! We have some people on the team who have been training with each other for 3+ years, so we are very comfortable with each other.”
Team Strengths: “We are a very strong team in general, but our team doesn’t have one strength. We have a lot of compliments from all the men to all the women, some have strengths that others would consider weaknesses – which is why we do so well together – someone can always pick up another teammate depending on the movement.”
Most Stressful Regional Event? As a generally “stronger team”, they may have some weaknesses in gymnastics movements like the handstand walk or handstand push-ups
Event They’re Looking Forward To? Event 7 (partner WOD) & Event 8 (pull-ups and overhead squat) on Day 3
Training for the Regionals: During the week, they usually have at least 2-3 training sessions together. The whole team gets together on the weekends (Fri-Sat-Sun). Most of them train at least 5 days a week. They also went head-to-head with the CrossFit King of Island Park team (from the Northeast region) last weekend and ran through all of the Regional events.
Fun Fact: The Box is actually switching the name to 12 Labours Fitness with 3 locations in Maryland (Syndicate, BWI, and Annapolis) – the first official public viewing of the logo and branding will be at Regionals.
Why I Think They Will Stand Out: “They’ve always had really good athletes, but just never put it together” (according to Brad). This team has done lots of competitions (they actually host the Mid-Atlantic Affiliate Challenge), and I can’t wait to see them put it all together at Regionals.
photo courtesy of CrossFit Syndicate
District CrossFit
Affiliate Location: Washington, DC
Website: http://www.districtcrossfit.com/
Open Team Rank: 12th
Team Members: BJ Peyton (32yo), Hank Mason (22yo), Josh Chen (26yo), Noah Gabriel-Landis (29yo), Andrea Ferry (36yo), Kate Garufi (32yo), Nicole Welsh (27yo), Kate Strangfeld (24yo)
Previous Regionals Experience: Kate and Noah competed on the District CrossFit Regionals team in 2012 and Noah competed as an Individual in 2013 at Regionals.
Fun Fact: Right after I visited District CrossFit, ActiveLifeDC published a great article on the Regional team as well, answering many of the same questions – check it out here: http://www.activelifedc.com/crossfit/district-crossfit-preps-for-regionals-an-interview-with-coach-noah-gabriel-landis/113599
Training for the Regionals: They try to coordinate their schedules as best as they can during the week, but all train together on the weekends.
Why I Think They Will Stand Out: When looking at their website, this is totally true after my visit to the Box: “[They] are a badass gym with lots of options. From personal training to powerlifting, [they] can do it all.” This team has a definite plan of attack and I am looking forward to watching them execute it!
photo courtesy of District CrossFit
CrossFit Woodbridge
Affiliate Location: Woodbridge, VA
Website: http://www.crossfitwoodbridge.com/
Open Team Rank: 16th
Team Members: Adam Tabalno (35yo), Brandon Kroll Eggie (16yo), “Frankie” Zare (23yo), Tristan Fortin (18yo), Lauren McGowan (22yo), Olivia Fortin (20yo), Sara Wood (35yo), Shannon Class (23yo)
Previous Regionals Experience: The team placed 5th at Regionals in 2013, missing California after an 18th place finish in the Overhead Squat WOD.
Team Dynamic: This is a young team age-wise, so the older members (“Momma Sara” and Adam) almost act as the parents to guide training decisions for the younger members.
Team Strengths: “[They] get as far as we do because of strong engines. [Lauren, Olivia, and Sara] competed at Regionals last year. They also compete at local competitions to build experience. [They] typically do well at light weight/high rep and bodyweight movements.”
Most Stressful Regional Event? The Overhead Squat one (Event 8)
Event They’re Looking Forward To? The partner WOD (Event 7)
Training for the Regionals: The girls on the team have been training together for about 2 years. They train all together on the weekend and generally prefer to train with at least one other member on the team to keep up the intensity throughout the week.
Motivational Experience? Three of the girls (Lauren, Olivia, and Sara) did a 3-day, non-stop, 100-mile ruck through Harpers Ferry and Gettysburg to D.C. where they walked through the night, didn’t sleep, and carried all of their own gear. “It was the most painful thing – more painful than any WOD.” -Olivia “The most pain. Everywhere.” -Lauren
Fun Fact: They’ve been training with a World-Class Russian Gymnast for over a year and an Olympian/American Open Champion Weightlifter for nearly 2 years.
Why I Think They Will Stand Out: This is a YOUNG team, with plenty of energy, enthusiasm, and drive. The “older” (definitely only by age) members Sara and Adam are Marines currently stationed at Quantico with plenty of experience to share with their teammates. The team also has a brother-sister duo of Tristan and Olivia on the team! Their coach Lloyd Edwards, Jr. is incredibly excited, knowledgeable, and motivating for the teammates. Be prepared to see them “Do Work”!
CrossFit Lorton
Affiliate Location: Lorton, VA
Website: http://www.crossfitlorton.com/
Open Team Rank: 29th
Team Members: Angelo Lee (26yo), Jim Rymiszewski (40yo), Ryan Hicks (32yo), Steve Reggio (43yo), Chrissy Daniel (25yo), Gretchen Tobias (25yo), Hanna Wardlaw (31yo), Steph Hay (33yo)
Previous Regionals Experience: They sent a team to Regionals in 2011. Steve placed 8th in the 2013 Open and 149th in the world during the 2014 Open Masters Qualifiers.
Team vs Individual: “[They] went in [to the Open] with the goal of trying to qualify as a team”.
Team Strengths: The fact that they have 6 people that can do everything in the Regional events. “No one can hide this year”.
Regional goals: They are hoping to move up in the team rankings, hopefully into the 15-20th range.
Training for the Regionals: The team trains together twice a week due to busy schedules, but most members train 5-6 days a week.
Motivational Phrases? “Let’s do this sh*t!”
Fun Fact: CrossFit Lorton has been around since 2008 and is one of the first 500 CrossFit affiliates in the world and one of the first affiliates in the Northern Virginia area. When Steve first opened, he only had one client!
Why I Think They Will Stand Out: Steve has been involved with CrossFit before CrossFit exploded, so he has an incredible knowledge base. They also have awesome, ever-changing, fast-paced music playlists thanks to musicforwods.com, created by team member Steph, and we all know how much music can motivate you during a workout!
About Amanda: Amanda Peretich is a high-school science teacher living in what feels like the middle of no-where Maryland. She joined the CrossFit craze to make some friends, lose some weight, and prove to her husband that it isn’t a cult. She quickly developed an addiction and hasn’t looked back since January 2013. When she isn’t flipping tires or attempting to string together more double unders, she enjoys running to good music, coaching indoor track & softball, cooking new things, and traveling to fun places.