Friday at Rogue Invitational had some surprises, some slow starts and interesting moments. There are plenty of familiar faces atop the leaderboard, but there are also some who we expected to do well this weekend that are bringing up the rear.
Here are the main storylines from Day 1 at the 2026 Rogue Invitational:
Horvath’s Slow Start
Laura Horvath was one of the favorites entering into the weekend. Given her previous success at Rogue (she’s won it three times) combined with no strict handstand push-ups this year, it seemed a no-brainer that she would be in contention to win her fourth title.
But that was before she gave everyone a one event headstart.
Horvath threw up a goose egg on the first event. The shoulder stamina heavy workout with the SkiErg, wall walks and devil’s press proved to not be great for her. He struggled mightily taking last place and earning 0 points.
She bounced back in Event 2 and surprisingly struggled in Event 3, the Viking Press, where she finished 11th.
After Day 1, she’s down in 12th place overall and 100 points back from 1st place…
Gabi’s Back
Horvath’s arch nemesis (maybe), Gabi Migala, holds the 100-point advantage of Horvath. Migala, who sat out Semifinals this year to focus on her return at Rogue this weekend, is the only female to have three top 10 finishes on Friday.
In fact, she never finished worse than 6th all day.
Now, entering Saturday Migala holds a 30-point lead over Lucy Campbell in 2nd place.
Single Malt
Let’s just say the ‘Sprint’ in Single Malt was false advertising.
At best it was a smooth hustle, but mostly it was a bit of a shuffle.
The so-called sprint featured both Matter Hill and carrying sandbags up said hill. No one was sprinting and that put the workout Colten Mertens’ favor. And he took advantage.
Back-to-Back Wins
Mertens would win Single Malt (Event 2) and then follow that up with another win on Viking Press (Event 3).
Add in a 7th place finish on Event 1 and Colten Mertens is your Day 1 leader.
No Squats
Another year, another event where Danielle Brandon sits out the back squats. The first barbell in Single Malt was 225 pounds for the women. DB never attempted one.
She just stood there.
Danielle followed that 0 point effort with another zero points in Viking Press where she only managed 10 reps, four worse than Arielle Loewen who took 19th.
Rodgers, Loewen, Domit & Brandon
Uh…these are the bottom 4 women on the leaderboard.
Paige Rodgers looked terrible on Events 1 and 2. Loewen didn’t look like herself on Events 2 and 3. Domit was just bad and we already talked about DB.
Maybe Saturday will be better.
Cringle Watch
After winning the CrossFit Games, the big question is whether that athlete can do well at Rogue. That question was raised about James Sprague in 2024 and Jayson Hopper in 2025.
In 2026, all eyes are on Aimee Cringle.
After the first three events, Cringle sits in 7th place overall, but she is just 20 points behind Alex Gazan in 3rd.
Dallin Time?
Is this the year that Dallin Pepper puts it all together and wins a big one?
So far so good for the two-time CrossFit Games runner-up. Dallin is in 2nd place overall and trails Colten Mertens by 5 points.
But maybe more importantly, he has a 30-point advantage of fellow Boys Interrupted co-host and defending CrossFit Games champion James Sprague.
Those are the takeaways from Day 1 at the 2026 Rogue Invitational. There are still six events remaining, plenty of points to move up the leaderboard.
No one is out of contention…technically. But some are.
