Competition

Team BPN’s Laura Horvath, Jamie Simmonds and Gabriela Migala Hold Off The Dottir’s Ft. MOB at TYR Wodapalooza

January 14, 2023 by
Photo Credit: Ava Kitzi
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The overwhelming favorites to win the Women’s Elite Team competition at TYR Wodapalooza in Miami, FL has to be the team made up of two CrossFit Games champions—Annie Thorisdottir and Katrin Davidsdottir—and recent podium finisher Mal O’Brien. 

But after Day 1, it became obvious that the title will have to be earned, and their biggest challenger might just be Team BPN, a team of Games veterans Laura Horvath, Jamie Simmonds and Gabriela Migala. 

Heading into Day 2, Team BPN leads the way, with The Dottirs FT. MOB close behind in second. 

Event 1: Start Fast, Finish Faster – The day kicked off with a two-round relay-style event, where each athlete did a different movement (either handstand push-ups, pistols or chest-to-bar pull-ups) before a shuttle run in Round 1 and a 240-meter row in Round 2. The name of the game was just as the name of the workout suggests: speed, speed, speed.

  • Heat 2 featured a ton of big-name athletes, including a team of Emma McQuaid, Jaqueline Dahlstrom and Solveig Sigurdardottir—The GOWOD Girls. They were fast from start to finish, taking the heat win.
  • Not to be outdone, Heat 3 came out fast and furious, but the two teams who led the way were The Girls—a team made up of two 2022 CrossFit Games rookies Christine Kolenbrander and Alexis Raptis, and 2019 Games competitor Fee Saghafi—and A.K.A Humble Killers (Alex Gazan, Kari Pearce and Arielle Loewen).
  • Meanwhile, for the majority of the workout, The Dottirs FT. MOB—found themselves back in fourth or fifth. That is, until O’Brien hit her second set of chest-to-bar pull-ups and made up a ton of ground before crushing the 240-meter row, passing A.K.A Humble Killers and nearly passing Kolenbrander, too. 
  • In the end, it was Kolenbrader who crossed the line a few strides ahead of O’Brien, giving The Girls the event win, while The Dotters FT. MOB settled for second, and Misfits with Lady Bits (Paige Semenza, Caroline Conners and Erin O’Donnell) edged out A.K.A Humble Killers by three seconds to take third. 
  • Team BPN had what would be their lowest finish of the day—sixth.

Event 2 and 3: Chasing Waterfalls – The second event of the team competition was a two-part one worth 200 points, that included a relay-style 5 km run (Part A), that had to be completed at the same time as Part B: one round each of 15 D-Ball cleans, an open water swim and 21 D-Ball squats.

  • No surprise, the All American Girls—a team of CrossFit Games veterans Brooke Wells, Amanda Barnhart and Kristi Eramo-O’Connell—came out hot, with Barnhart, a former collegiate swimmer, giving her team an early lead on the swim event. Wells went second and did more than hold her own. In fact, when she finished her round, no other teams were even close to being out of the water yet. This allowed Eramo O’Connell, known for both her running and swimming prowess, to cruise through her round and lock up a dominant event win for her team. This performance was much needed as they placed ninth on the first event.
  • The Dottirs FT. MOB also fared well on the swim. And although they were nowhere near The American GIrls, they did enough to lock up a second place finish. Factor in the fact that they had a solid performance on the 5 km run—third place with a time of 15:45.41—they were able to snag the overall lead. 
  • The fastest 5K relay run time, however, belonged to Invictus Chicks (Lauren Stallwood, Emily Rethwill and Allie Weiss), while Team BPN placed second. They were also third on Part B, helping them vault themselves into second overall after a slow start on Event 1.
  • Another team who held their own on both portions of the event were the A.K.A Humble Killers, who were coming off a solid fourth place finish in the first event. They finished sixth on the run and fourth on the swim, doing enough to put them in third overall heading into the final event of the day.

Event 4: Sync Up and Squat – The final event of the day was a classic team-style event that asked the athletes to complete 30-20-10 synchronized reps of ring and bar muscle-ups and synchronized squat cleans and squat snatches.

  • Once again, the GOWOD Girls were in a class of their own in Heat 2, easily winning their heat and becoming the first team to finish the event before the time cap.
  • In Heat 3, Team BPN took the early lead and never looked back. They went on to lock up an event win. The question then became would enough teams squeeze between them and The Dottirs FT. MOB for Team BPN to take the lead?
  • Things played out well for Team BPN, as the All American Girls—who went into the event in fourth—put forth an impressive performance, finishing second and helping their quest for the podium. Three other teams also managed to squeeze in between Team BPN and The Dottirs FT. MOB, meaning Team BPN was able to gain 25 points, just enough to take over the lead. They head into Day 2 with a five point lead.

The top-five teams after the opening day:

  • Team BPN – 360 points
  • The Dottirs FT. MOB – 355 points
  • All American Girls – 337
  • A.K.A Humbles Killers – 330 points
  • GOWOD Girls – 305 points

The big picture: After Day 1, it might look like the race for the top spot will be between Team BPN and The Dottirs FT. MOB, but with half the points still on the table, any one of the top five teams still has a chance to take the title. And it will be especially interesting to see what the GOWOD Girls—a team of Games veterans—can do when they’re placed in the final heat tomorrow. This show is far from over.

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