Kentucky Team Competes In 2015 Crossfit Games (Update)

Update (7/24 – 3:30 PM) – After a 14th place finish in the land worm and a 9th, 19th and 27th in events 4-6, CrossFit Maximus have moved into 15th place, jumping up six spots from before competing this morning!

There is a stigma that goes along with the word CrossFit.  One of which is that people who do CrossFit, can’t stop talking about it.  I don’t know about anyone else on the KSR Staff, but I certainly know that both Tyler and I do CrossFit workouts, and we have tried to not bombard you with our WODs and Metcons and AMRAPS, etc. etc. etc.  However, I do want to talk about a Kentucky CrossFit related story.

The goal of the CrossFit Games is to find the “Fittest On Earth”.  It just so happens that there is a Kentucky team vying for that title.  The CrossFit Games are taking place this week, from July 21-26 in Carson, California, and Crossfit Maximus of Lexington, Kentucky has made the trip to try to be the fittest team on Earth.  Laura Clark, Erica Spitz, Jenny Bradford, Eric Oxley, Dex Hopkins and Chris Walker represent the Lexington based team, and they currently sit in 21st place, but with eight events left to go, they can really move up the leaderboard over the next three days.

In day one (Wednesday), Maximus competed in two events.  The first event was titled “Water Worm”.  The event saw the six competitors do a combined 150 (75-50-25) deadlifts of an awkwardly weighted worm sandbag, along with two 500 meter swims around a pier, while holding on to a team boogie board.  Maximus took 24th place in the event, completing in a time of 43:18.61.  The second event was a six mile relay run, with each team member completing a one mile leg each.  Maximus finished in 14th place, running six miles in 36:36.00.

Watch the “Water Worm” event:

As noted before, they are in 21st place, sitting just three spots behind CrossFit Mayhem Freedom, the team which boasts “The Champ” Rich Froning on their team.  Froning was the individual men’s CrossFit Champion in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, and has since transitioned to team competition, trying to find success in that area as well.  CrossFit Maximus and Mayhem Freedom are in the same region and have previously battled each other earlier this season in the Central Region.

In the final week of May, the Central Region teams competed in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Through five of the seven events of the Regional competition, Maximus led over Mayhem Freedom 411-405.  Froning’s squad surged in the final two events to win the region, but with a third place finish, Maximus secured their spot in the 2015 CrossFit Games.

Lexington’s squad will be back in action today starting at Noon on ESPN3.  Event 3, called the “Earth Worm” will see the teams have to run a combined 1800 meters and perform 150 combined squats with the team worm bag.  It will be a land version of what they had to do on Wednesday.  Events 4,5,6 this afternoon will have the teams break off in to three pairs, performing 545 lb. deadlifts (more weight on one side of the bar for men), and bar muscle-ups.  Each pair will have to do the same amount of work, but in different rep schemes.  Take a look a the full event listing in the graphic below.

Be sure to watch Maximus in the CrossFit games this weekend.  Coverage will begin at 12:00 PM today on ESPN3, and events 4, 5 & 6 will take place at 1:45 PM.

You can also watch it in the YouTube pane below when it becomes available at Noon: