The Fittest States in North America East
While die-hard fans of the sport can rattle off the CrossFit resumes of the sixty males and fifty-nine females taking the competition floor at North America East Semifinal this weekend, few know where their fave athletes live.
The South, however, is a good guess.
Indeed, while athletes living (more-or-less) to the right of the Mississippi River could, in theory, could compete this weekend, a little investigation on where athletes live reveals, the Southern states in the East region house a far greater number of heavy-hitters than the Northern states in the region.
Sending the highest number of athletes to East Regional is the state holding the competition: Florida.
There will be a whopping 17 total Florida-based individual athletes competing this weekend, which make up 15 percent of the field. Suns out, guns out, indeed.
A chunk of these athletes come from the Brute Strength Empire, which is located in Naples. Games-veterans Danielle Brandon, Dallin Pepper, Emma Carry, Fee Saghafi, and hopefuls James Sprague and Nate Ackermann, for instance, are all Brute baddies who train in Florida year-round. Two-time Semifinal athlete Jessica Androsik is another Florida-based athlete with the team of coaches under Matt Torres.
Three of the Sunshine State athletes — Noah Olsen, Jake Berman, and Anikha Greer — signed up under Miami’s very own Peak 360 CrossFit. (Note: these athletes follow Training Think Tank programming).
The rest of the Floridians (Lindsey Porter, Nina Vragovic, and Mark Hutchinson, to name a few) come from a spattering of boxes across the sneaky-dense state.
The state with the second biggest showing in North America East? Tennessee.
Given that PRVN Headquarters and CrossFit Mayhem are located in East Nashville and Cookeville, respectively, the fact that 14 athletes at North America East are Tennessee-based is as surprising as seeing Tia take gold at the Games last year. (Meaning, not at all).
Representing PRVN HQ, or CrossFit East Nashville as they’re also known, are athletes the Wells sisters, Saxon Panchik, and Will Moorad. Plus, two lesser-known athletes: Nicole Gibson-Burke and Jordan Malm.
We’ve got just one woman hauling to Orlando from Froning’s Kingdom: Paige Powers. But the men of Mayhem are making an impressive showing. Amongst them are Tennessee’s newest resident, Roman Khrennikov, as well as Mayhem lifers like Luke Parker and Tyler Christophel.
The third state repping an impressive athlete roster is Georgia, with 10 athletes total between the men’s and women’s divisions.
The main reason? Georgia is the domain of Training Think Tank Headquarters, as well as their wall-sharing friend, CrossFit UNTD.
As it goes, 6 of the 7 women from Georgia this weekend are TTT or TM (that’s Travis Mayer) athletes. Including, Games-vet Alexis Raptis, and athletes Allison Ralfs, Ashleigh Wosny, Keara Napoli, and Lydia Fish.
In case you were wondering, the seventh female Georgian taking the floor this weekend is Amanda Fischer, who trains at CrossFit 404 in Atlanta, GA.
The 3 men from Georgia taking the Orange County Convention Center floor are all from different boxes. Dylan Pettit is with CrossFit Identity, Jason Ray is with CrossFit Valdosta, and fan-fave Griffin Roelle is with CrossFit Dwala (Roelle withdrew citing an adductor injury on day one).
Most of the other states with impressive representation at North America East Semifinals are also south of the Mason Dixon line. Including North Carolina with 7 and Virginia with 5. The lone exception here is Ohio with 9 athletes.
The details
Women:
- Florida (9)
- Georgia (7)
- North Carolina (5) 3. Tennessee (5) 3. Pennsylvania (5)
Men:
- Canada(9)
- Tennessee (9)
- Florida (8)
- Ohio (7)
Total:
- Florida (17)
- Tennessee (14)
- Canada (12)
- Georgia (10)
- Ohio (9)
- North Carolina (7)
- Michigan (7)
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