Scott Panchik had to scratch and claw his way back from 15th after Day 1 to put him back into position to make a run at a qualifying spot on Sunday. After a 3rd and 4th place finish on Saturday Panchik was in 5th place.
However, after a 12th place finish on the Sunday chipper, Scott Panchik moved back to 6th place and 18 points behind the talk of the weekend at the Central Regional, Drew Wayman. Two spots behind Scott was his 22-year-old brother, Saxon. Saxon was in 8th place and 26 points outside of Wayman in 5th.
At the starting tone, both Panchik brothers took off, gambling on running out of steam to make it to the 2018 CrossFit Games. Scott and Saxon seemed to be in sync as they moved back and forth between the rope and heavy thrusters. As the Panchik brothers were pushing the pace Streat Hoerner and Drew Wayman were falling off the pace.
Scott would eventually finish his final thruster and sprint towards the finish line, just seconds ahead of Saxon. Saxon jumped on Scott to congratulate him on qualifying for his 7th straight CrossFit Games appearance. What Saxon likely did not know was that he would squeeze into the 5th qualifying spot after Streat Hoerner struggled to finish his final 8 thrusters.
In total, five athletes in the Central Regional broke the then-current event record of 3:42 set by Roman Khrenikov during the Europe Regional. Mat Fraser finished in 3:17. Scott Panchik finished in 3:27, Spencer in 3:29. The 4th athlete was Alex Anderson who did it in 3:33 and Nick Bloch finished in 3:37.
Bloch ended up in 6th place, just four points behind Saxon Panchik. Scott and Saxon’s brother, Spencer, took 16th place overall.
Final Standings:
1) Mat Fraser (564)
2) Alex Anderson (426)
3) Nick Urankar (422)
4) Scott Panchik (406)
5) Saxon Panchik (392)
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6) Nick Bloch (388)
7) Streat Hoerner (388)
It is the third time two brothers will compete at the same CrossFit Games.
