The 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Semifinals began earlier today, May 18th, with the North America East Semifinal in Orlando, Florida at the Orange County Convention Center. The teams took to the floor first with a test of aerobic capacity, odd object core strength, and teamwork in the form of clean and jerks with the worm.
CrossFit Mayhem Independence took the lead early being the first team to their worm at 3:14. While Mayhem Independence opted for quick singles on the worm, CrossFit Future the Brutes overtook Mayhem Independence going touch-and-go on their first round of 10 worm clean and jerks who finished their first round in 4:09.
In round two, Mayhem Independence reclaimed the lead moving to the worm at 7:56 with CrossFit OBA only 7 seconds behind. Mayhem Independence finished their first two rounds in 9:00 and extended their lead to 12 seconds over CrossFit OBA. With a costly no rep on the worm, CrossFit Future the Brutes couldn’t maintain their pace from round one and dropped to seventh. A smooth run on the worm moves CrossFit East Nashville PRVN into 3rd finishing two rounds at 9:23.
Taylor Williamson and Andrea Nisler demolished the double-unders and bear-hug sandbag hold in round three, each going unbroken on their 150 double-unders and complementary sandbag hold. The East Nashville PRVN women were so quick that they had to wait for Tola Morakinyo to complete his 800-m run before the team advanced to their third round of worm clean and jerks.
With Williamson and Nisler’s stellar performance, East Nashville PRVN found themselves with the lead and Mayhem Independence trailing by 12 seconds going to the worm. Mayhem Independence kept a slightly faster pace on the 10 clean and jerks and cut the separation with East Nashville PRVN to six seconds heading into the final round.
However with only one break on the sandbag hold from Morakinyo and another unbroken sandbag hold from Nisler, East Nashville PRVN ran away with the final round crossing the finish line before Mayhem Independence had all made it back to the worm. Finishing in a time of 19:15.24, East Nashville PRVN collects 100 points beating the previous best time of 19:37.60 from CrossFit Move Fast Lift Heavy 247 out of heat three with CrossFit Mayhem Independence rounding out the top three with a time of 20:04.17.
Many of the teams expected to be in the hunt for a Games spot are near the top of the leaderboard. The top 10 teams at the end of the weekend will earn a trip to Madison, Wisconsin.
Test 1 Results:
1st) CrossFit East Nashville PRVN
2nd) CrossFit Move Fast Lift Heavy 247
3rd) CrossFit Mayhem Independence
4th) AB CrossFit – Mayhem
5th) CrossFit CLT The Grit Haus
