Kendall Vincelette: Continuing Her Open Success
Kendall Vincelette knows she has her work cut out for her when she competes in her first career CrossFit Games on September 18-19. Like the other athletes in the field she has been training for this moment all year. Unlike some of her contemporaries, her elite competitive background is not as extensive. However, when she has competed, she has shown she deserves to be alongside the greats in the sports.
Remind me: Vincelette at 26-years old has two regional appearances to her credit. In 2015 she competed at the West Regional as an individual where she placed 31st. Her next appearance was two years later at the 2017 Central Regional with Union Fitness where she helped the team to a 10th place finish.
She has competed in two Sanctionals over the last two years. In 2019 she placed sixth at the Granite Games but made her presence felt at Wodapalooza this past February.
Vincelette has been able to compete at a high level while attending graduate school. On top of getting her masters in Nurse Anesthesia. She also trained this season without a personal coach while following CompTrain training.
Enter 2020: Vincelette tied Andrea Nisler for 15th place in the worldwide Open to earn her Games invite. She had four top-40 finishes in the Open including an 18th place finish in 20.1. Her worst finish was 67th in 20.4.
Her 2020 Open finish was a drastic improvement from the previous year. In 2019 she finished 49th in the Open, continuing her four-year stretch of improving finishes at the Open
In a stacked Wodapalooza field of women’s athletes she held her own and finished seventh, recording five top-ten finishes.
Like all the athletes, the 2020 season was less than ideal but Vincelette but she has faced adversity and struggles over the last few years.
- “In 2018 I was dealing with a knee injury, so took the year off and also was focusing on applying for graduate school. I still was training, but it was more for fun. I never thought I would be able to do my career and make it to the Games since both are so demanding. In 2019 I didn’t do anything special, I have always just followed CompTrain, but I no longer was dealing with injuries and started focusing more on recovery. It was a huge surprise to almost make the Games that year though and that lit the fire to train even harder to make the Games in 2020 since I was so close!”
Path to the “Live Five”: If Vincelette makes it to Aromas it will be in part because of her gymnastics. The Open workouts for example played into a lot of her strengths as an athlete who has a high-level of gymnastics skills. She has done particularly well in events that feature muscle-ups and handstand walks.
She placed 27th in the Open in 20.3 which included both handstand push-ups and walks.
She has also done well in high capacity workouts that also feature body weight movements and moderate barbells. A perfect example of that is 20.1 when she finished ten rounds of eight ground-to-overheads and ten bar-facing burpees.
Her highest finish at Wodapalooza was second in the event called “Shark Bait” which included pistols, over-the-shoulder D-Balls and a 300-meter swim.
Standing at 5’2” she has had difficulty in events that feature rowing and odd object workouts. Her Olympic lifts are also something she says she needs to work to improve on.
She placed 23rd in the max distance Pace Boat event at Wodapalooza, her worst finish at the competition.
Benchmark 1RM Lifts
- Back Squat = 300 LBs
- Front Squat = 260 LBs
- Clean = 245 LBs
- Clean and Jerk = 245 LBs
- Snatch = 195 LBs
- Overhead Squat = 235 LBs
- Deadlift = 350 LBs