Saturday at the SAP Center in San Jose, CA, delivered a handful of dominant performances on the women’s side and an exciting four-way battle atop the men’s leaderboard.

With one day to go, Aimee Cringle leads the women’s field by 116 points, while Sprague leads the men, 29 points ahead of Dallin Pepper.

Individual and Team Top-10 Leaderboard, End-of-Day Saturday

The leaderboard below reflects the top-10 standings at the end of the competition day on Saturday. Full CrossFit Games leaderboard here.

Men	Women	Team
1) James Sprague — 1114	1) Aimee Cringle — 1190	1) CF Mayhem — 740
2) Dallin Pepper — 1085	2) Emma Lawson — 1074	2) CF Whip — 715
3) Jay Crouch — 1046	3) Lucy Campbell — 1041	3) CF Oslo Kriger — 615
4) Justin Medeiros — 984	4) Maddie Sturt — 877	4) CF Sodra Wattern — 555
5) Jayson Hopper — 916	5) Alex Gazan — 863	5) CF Asker Kriger — 505
6) Ricky Garard — 906	6) Arielle Loewen — 811	6) Homefront CF PRVN — 500
7) Jeffrey Adler — 832	7) Olivia Kerstetter — 787	7) CF Kia Maia — 480
8) Roman Khrennikov — 798	8) Danielle Brandon — 782	8) Camp Rhino CF — 465
9) Guilherme Malheiros — 763	9) Elisa Fuliano — 777	9) Solidarity CF Basecamp — 455
10) Moritz Fiebig — 760	10) Paige Rodgers — 773	10) CF Reykjavík — 410

Here are the three biggest storylines from an action-packed day at the SAP Center.

Sheer Domination for Cringle

Saturday’s first event, the 500-meter run, simple as it was, has to be considered one of the most grueling tests of the weekend, especially when it comes to lactic acid and lung burn. And in some ways, it was also one of the most challenging to gauge, as it’s not a common distance any athletes practice. 

• But women’s leader Aimee Cringle made it look like it’s something she trains all the time, as if she had a master pacing plan and executed it flawlessly.

She let Maddie Sturt take the early lead on the first straightaway, but Cringle stayed close behind and made her move, passing Sturt on the first turn, but Sturt wasn’t too far behind.

Cringle, though, was just waiting to kick it into another gear. On the final straightaway, she pulled away and cruised to her fourth win in the event.

She followed this up with an even more dominant performance on event 14.

IE14: Triple Pig

For time:

• 10 bar muscle-ups
• 15 GHD wall-ball shots
• 20 triple-unders
• 1 Pig flip

• 15 bar muscle-ups
• 20 GHD wall-ball shots
• 25 triple-unders
• 2 Pig flips

• 20 bar muscle-ups
• 25 GHD wall-ball shots
• 30 triple-unders
• 3 Pig flips

Cringle was untouchable in the event, stringing together her triple-unders effortlessly en route to a fifth event win, almost two minutes faster than second-place finisher Kyra Milligan.

It was starting to seem like no matter what you throw at Cringle, even new movements that had never been featured before at the CrossFit Games, she makes them look like she has trained them her whole life.

After Event 14, Cringle held a 128-point lead over Emma Lawson before going on to finish her day with three more consistent performances (13th, seventh and fourth), ending with 1,190 points, a 116-point lead over Lawson in second.

With just three events left on Sunday, there is no doubt it’s Cringle’s to lose.

Sprague, Medeiros, Pepper and Crouch Continue to Duke it Out

Heading into the day, James Sprague sat in first, but only 12 points ahead of Jay Crouch in second. Justin Medeiros was right behind them, just eight points behind Crouch, and Dallin Pepper was 14 points behind that.

As the day unfolded, the battle between them only heated up and grew even closer.

The first event of the day, the 500-meter run, wasn’t particularly strong for any of them—Crouch was 10th, Sprague 13th, Medeiros 18th, and Dallin Pepper 23rd—but all this meant was that their points remained close.

After the next event, the Triple Pig, all four maintained their positions on the leaderboard, although Pepper had closed the gap thanks to a second-place finish.

But then the 2020 Snatch Speed event shuffled them around again.

• Pepper had the strongest showing among the four (fourth), helping him move back into second overall, right where he started the day.

Heading into the final back-to-back events of the day — Events 16 and 17 — Sprague continued to lead with 918 points, but Pepper was only 13 points behind him, Crouch 15 points behind Pepper, and Medeiros 15 points behind Crouch.

IE16: Echo Thruster

21-18-15 reps for time of:

• Echo bike calories
• thrusters, increasing in load

IE17: Jump Pull Yoke

When the clock reads 10 minutes, complete for time:

• 20 shuttle box jumps
• seated sled pull
• 30-foot yoke carry, weight 1
• 30-foot yoke carry, weight 2
• 30-foot yoke carry, weight 3

For the second straight event, it was Pepper who did himself the most favors. He pulled ahead on the second set of thrusters and completed his last set of thrusters unbroken for an easy event win, ahead of Sprague, who finished second, while Crouch came sixth and Medeiros seventh.

But Sprague turned around on Event 17 looking possessed and unwilling to lose the leader’s jersey and was the first athlete to finish the shuttle box jumps. He didn’t relent en route to picking up his first event win of the weekend.

The result: Sprague maintains the leader’s jersey with three events to go, and Pepper sits in second. Crouch heads into Saturday 39 points behind Pepper, and Mederios, who had a tough Event 17,  is 62 points behind Pepper.

Campbell and Lawson’s Battle for Second

With three events left, it feels like the biggest women’s battle on Sunday will be for second place between Lucy Campbell and Emma Lawson.

Campbell entered the day just five points ahead of Lawson, but Lawson beat Campbell in the 500-meter run — Lawson was ninth, Campbell 12th — which helped Lawson pass Campbell in the overall standings, though barely. Lawson entered Event 14 just one point ahead.

• Lawson continued building momentum at the next event — The Triple Pig — finishing sixth, while Campbell finished 15th. As a result, Lawson extended her lead over Campbell to 36 points.

Next up was the 2020 Speed Snatch event, a heavy elimination-style sprint workout. The event wasn’t a total wheelhouse for either of them, but Lawson (11th) once again gained some more valuable points over Campbell (19th).

But then came the final two back-to-back events of the day, and Campbell’s name was all over them.

Campbell looked like the always gritty athlete who never shies away from the pain cave, the athlete she has come to be known for in the sport. 

• She took an early lead on the first set of thrusters and didn’t let go, winning the heat (though she finished second overall, as Ellie Turner from Heat 2 had the fastest time of the day).

Campbell turned around and did the same on Event 17, and this time it was enough to win the event.

Lawson held her own, finishing fifth in both events, meaning she heads into Sunday still in second. Campbell is only 33 points back, well ahead—164 points—of Maddie Sturt in fourth.

The Big Picture

With three final events on Sunday, Cringle has a strong grip on the women’s side, but the men’s race remains too close to predict who might win it all, setting the stage for a dramatic finish to the 20th CrossFit Games.