Next Up, Mid-Atlantic: Win and You’re In
Twenty men, 20 women and 38 teams are set to square off for three days of competition in our nation’s capital of Washington, D.C. this weekend. This is the first Sanctional since the conclusion of the 2019 CrossFit Open and one of only 10 opportunities remaining (9 for teams) to grab a spot at the CrossFit Games.
The pathway to qualify from the Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Challenge is not exactly straightforward.
- Five athletes — Sam Kwant, Paul Castillo, Dani Speegle, Kristine Best and Melissa Doll are currently in qualifying positions, unofficially. Speegle is the unofficial US national champion in the Open. Best and Doll are 13th and 30th worldwide. Kwant and Castillo finished 20th and 17th worldwide.
- KT Trombetta is only two spots away from qualifying through the Open and will likely get it. Trombetta currently sits in 32nd worldwide, however, 28th place Tasia Percevecz is committed to Mayhem Freedom. Sitting in 31st is Camilla Salomonsson Hellman, the unofficial national champion of Sweden, which means the invite will pass down to Trombetta.
- Assuming all the already qualified athletes finish at the top, the invite would go all the way down to the third (men) and fifth (women) placed athletes.
- No special invites were granted for this competition so every athlete and team went through the qualifier.
- This is a fairly “green” group of competitors. There are only four former individual Games athletes on the men’s side, and two on the women’s side.
- This is also the first Sanctional for a majority of these athletes. Only 10 of 40 athletes have competed in a Sanctional before, most notably is Dani Speegle who has competed in three others so far followed by Paul Castillo, Norman Woodring and Samantha Pugh all with two.
Names to pay attention to:
- Sam Kwant, Paul Castillo, Mitch Spjut, Christian Harris, Norman Woodring, Adam Klink and Spencer Panchik.
- Dani Speegle, Meg Reardon, KT Trombetta, Paige Semenza, Paige Henry, and Amanda Hardeman.
- Full Roster.
Anyone notice that there are more team competing than individuals? That’s because the Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Challenge has traditionally been a team focused competition which served as a tune-up for Mid-Atlantic affiliates competing at Regionals. Here’s a look at the team division.
- There is only one true super team here: Team MisFit, comprised of Alexis Johnson, Jenn Smith, Travis Williams and Roy Gamboa. Johnson has unofficially qualified for the Games as an individual and all four athletes have unbelievable Games records. They are going to be a very tough team to beat.
- CrossFit Invictus has three teams competing and looking to lock up a second team qualified for the Games. The Invictus team that won Dubai will not be competing, instead are Invictus X, who replaced Jenn Dancer with Maddy Myers, Invictus Boston and Team Invictus. Invictus X is the favorite among the three.
- Most of the teams are coming out of former Mid-Atlantic Regionals teams. Affiliates like CrossFit Balance, CrossFit DC. CrossFit Milford, 12 Labours, Training Think Tank, and CrossFit Reston.
- Brooke Haas, who has unofficially qualified with a 20th place finish worldwide, is competing on Team SouthEast Beats with Lauren Herrera, Mitch Wagner and Zach Eggen.
How to watch and our coverage.
- The livestream will focus on the Elite divisions for the most part, so if you’re looking for coverage of Rx we wouldn’t hold your breath.
- The livestream will be available on Mid Atlantic’s Facebook page and Tommy Marquez and Sean Woodland will be doing the announcing.
- The Morning Chalk Up Team is unfortunately unavailable to cover this one so we’ll only be providing a wrap-up at the end.
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