Wodapalooza Day 2 Recap
The narrative from day one carried over to day two of the Wodapalooza CrossFit Festival on Friday in Bayfront Park, Miami. Travis Williams continued to make his presence and level of fitness felt in the men’s division, the women’s division’s much-promised battle between Tia-Clair Toomey and Sara Sigmundsdottir continues into day three and CrossFit Mayhem Freedom remains the team to beat despite many challengers to the throne.
The men’s division:
Williams keeps on showing that despite his commitment to compete with CrossFit OC3 at the 2020 CrossFit Games, he is still a force to be reckoned with in individual competition. In the first event of the day, called “Pace Race”, he came up just 28 meters short of an event win finishing with 3,600 meters rowed. His second-straight runner-up finish gave him a 32-point lead over Cole Sager.
In event four, the “Pump Sesh Triplet”, Williams struggled under the lights of the Bayside Stage as he failed to finish the workout under the 8:00 minute time cap, finishing 12th. Sager made up 28 points with his fourth-place finish and sits just four points behind Williams.
- Sager has finished in the top-eight in all four events with three top-four finishes. He is one of two male athletes who have finished in the top-ten in all events.
- Patrick Vellner is the other athlete with no finishes outside the top-ten. The defending Wodapalooza champion sits in third place, just 16 points out of the lead.
- The battle for the 2020 Games invitation could come down to a sibling rivalry. Saxon Panchik sits in fourth place, only four points ahead of twin brother Spencer. After both finished in the middle of the pack in event three, each finished in the top-five in event four. Spencer placed third and Saxon finished fifth.
- Canadian Albert-Dominic Larouche is making a charge to earn his sixth career Games ticket. He sits in sixth just eight points behind Saxon Panchik’s Games qualifying position.
- A pair of Games veterans who finished in the top-ten last season continued to struggle on day two. 2019 Games runner-up Noah Ohlsen is tied for seventh. After finishing second in the opening event of the competition, Adrian Mundwiler has finished 27th, 20th and 10th. The eighth “Fittest Man on Earth” last year currently sits in tenth place, 108 points behind Williams.
The women’s division:
Sigmundsdottir remains atop the leaderboard in the women’s division but she knows she’s in for a fight to keep it. Toomey is just four points behind her as both women have put on a show for the South Florida crowd.
The 2020 CrossFit Open champion, Sigmundsdottir, placed sixth in the “Pace Race” in a close contest for the event win. The difference between Katelin Van Zyl’s winning distance of 3,285 meters and Sigmundsdottir’s was 42 meters. Toomey placed 11th in the event, the worst finish she has ever had in a Sanctional.
That gave Sigmundsdottir an 18-point lead heading into event four.
Showing the drive and determination that has garnered her three-straight Games titles, Toomey stormed back and finished second in the “Pump Sesh Triplet” while Sigmundsdottir placed fifth.
- Sigmundsdottir is the only woman not to record a finish outside the top-ten. Her worst finish after four events is sixth place.
- Kari Pearce sits in third place, 32 points behind Sigmundsdottir. She won event four with a time of 4:44, finishing ahead of Toomey by nearly a minute.
- After a 23rd place finish in the opening event, Amanda Barnhart has recorded three-straight finishes in the top four putting her in fourth place.
- Haley Adams also recovered from day one struggles, finishing third and eighth in day two events. She rounds out the top five athletes in the women’s division.
- Canadian Emily Rolfe holds onto the Games qualifying spot at seventh place with 250 points. Athletes behind her searching for their Games invite include Colleen Fotsch (ninth – 226 points) and Jessica Griffith (tied for tenth – 220 points).
- Savannah Carver withdrew from the competition after finishing second in event three.
The team division:
Mayhem Freedom may hold the lead after day two, but they have a few highly competitive teams nipping at their heels. Two “Super Teams” are pushing the four-time Games champions. Team GOWOD is just two points behind Freedom with Team Wit in third, eight points off the lead.
Team GOWOD and Wit traded places in events three and four. In the “Pace Race”, teams were split into male and female pairs and given separate scores for each. Michael Smith and Joshua Al-Chamaa won the men’s pairing for Team Wit with Luke Schafer and Streat Hoerner placing second for GOWOD. The men’s Mayhem Freedom pair of Rich Froning and Scott Panchik struggled, finishing 13th.
The women then got a chance to tackle the rower in event four. Andrea Nisler and Taylor Williamson gave GOWOD their second event win of the competition. Samantha Briggs and Harriet Roberts were runners-up for Team Wit, and the team of Chyna Cho and Tasia Percevecz placed third for Mayhem Freedom.
Both GOWOD and Wit held the overall lead heading into event five, the team “Pump Sesh Triplet”. It was all Mayhem Freedom from the outset as they were the only team to finish under the time cap.
- Mayhem Independence currently sits in the Games qualifying spot in fourth place. Team GOWOD and Team Wit have athletes that have qualified as individuals or on other teams. Mayhem Freedom has already earned its invitation after winning at Strength in Depth.
- Team Victory Grips is in fifth and just three points behind Independence for the Games qualifying spot.
On tap for day three: Two events are scheduled for both individuals and teams.
- Schedule of events for your time zone.
The Top Overall Top 10 After Day 2
- Sara Sigmundsdottir (344) | Travis Williams (328) | Mayhem Freedom (365)
- Tia-Clair Toomey (340) | Cole Sager (324) | Team GOWOD (363)
- Kari Pearce (312) | Patrick Vellner (312) | Team Wit (357)
- Amanda Barnhart (300) | Saxon Panchik (260) | Mayhem Independence (305)
- Haley Adams (262) | Spencer Panchik (256) | Team Victory Grips (302)
- Katelin Van Zyl (254) | Albert-Dominic LaRouche (252) | SugarWOD(266)
- Emily Rolfe (250) | Logan Collins (236) | ROMWOD Meat Squad (258)
- Brooke Wells (232) | Noah Ohlsen (236) | US Army Warrior Fitness Team (255)
- Colleen Fotsch (226) | Nycolas Joyal (224) | Blacklisted HQ (240)
- Jessica Griffith (220) | Adrian Mundwiler (220) | Team Soul/Luther (235)
Update: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Katelin Van Zyl as currently leading for the qualifying spot over the rest of the field. She already has received her Games invitation and the spot at the time of writing was Emily Rolfe. The story has been updated to correct this.
Update: In an earlier version of this story stated Albert-Dominic Larouche was looking for his first Games invite. It has been updated to correctly state that he is looking for his 6th invite.
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