That was quite the weekend.
Laura’s (Almost) Comeback
It’s not every day that the athlete who takes last place on the first event comes back and finishes on the podium. However, that’s exactly what Laura Horvath did.
Horvath took the ‘L’ on River Dee Friday morning. A brutal combination of SkiErg, wall walks and Devil’s Press fatigued Horvath’s triceps, a known weakness. She finished last and earned 0 (zero, nilch, nada) points.
But heading into the final event there was a chance that she was going to pull off the miracle and end up in 1st place…if Lucy Campbell struggled.
Alas, Campbell did not and Horvath would have to settle for 2nd place overall.
In the run up the leaderboard, Horvath won four events on the weekend. The last win was her 17th career win at Rogue.
Gabi’s Comeback
I’m sure Gabi Migala is disappointed with the final result today. She began in 1st place but surrendered the lead on Event 8 to Lucy Campbell.
And then ended up tying Horvath in points for 2nd place, but lost on the tiebreaker because Migala didn’t have four event wins.
There is a lot to be happy about for Migala though. It was her first major in-person competition since her Achilles injury at Rogue two years ago. She came back and looked as good, if not better, than ever.
The Interview
In what was possibly the best post-event interview in the history of CrossFit competitions, Horvath and Migala were interviewed after taking 1st and 2nd, respectively, on Event 7 Sunday morning.
It was amazing…
No More Monkey
It has been seven years since Dallin Pepper won the Teenage CrossFit Games in 2019. Since then he’s won Semifinals, but nothing as big as the Rogue Invitational.
After having to watch his Boys Interrupted pals win the CrossFit Games, Dallin was the only one on the show to have never won a major event.
Until today.
Pepper entered the day in the lead, but guys like James Sprague, Jay Crouch and Tudor Magda were all in reach. For Sprague and Magda, the remaining events were in their wheelhouse.
Pepper prevailed and was able to stay close enough to Sprague and throughout to secure the Rogue Invitational title.
Surprisingly, Pepper did not win one event. Instead he had FIVE 4th place finishes on the weekend along with three 2nd places.
The Sandbag Toss
First, can we all agree that the format of the sandbag toss at Rogue was better than how it was used at the CrossFit Games?
Whether you agree with me or not, I thought the sandbag toss was a great addition to the final event. I would have preferred to see three tosses each round as the 3-2-1 rep scheme basically meant the final toss was meaningless to anyone who didn’t struggle in the first round or two.
As for struggling, Aimee Cringle and Colten Mertens were on the struggle bus. It took Mertens nearly three minutes to get his first successful sandbag toss over the bar. He would end up taking last in the event.
Cringle would do better than Mertens early on but the final sandbag stopped her in her tracks.
She would fail over and over again and never finish the workout. She’d take last on the final event and drop all the way down to 8th place overall.
Disappointing Finishes
Not everyone can have a great weekend like Lucy Campbell and Dallin Pepper.
That was especially true for several of the women who we almost always see near the top of the leaderboard.
Paige Rodgers, who reportedly was very sick in the days leading up to the competition, never looked herself all weekend. She ended up in 18th place.
Maddie Sturt finished 5th at the CrossFit Games this year. However, this weekend her performance was nothing close to what we saw in San Jose. She was near the back all weekend and finished 17th.
Danielle Brandon didn’t attempt a back squat. She almost gave up on The Viking. Those two last place finishes put her in a bad spot. DB, with her new coach, was only able to get three top 10 event finishes this weekend. She placed 16th overall.
