The Central Regional could have a much different look in 2018 now that Elijah Muhammad and Mat Fraser have moved to the North Central and Central East regions, respectively. The Central Regional sent two rookies to the CrossFit Games in 2017, Paul Castillo and Streat Hoerner. Those rookies topped the leaderboard finishing 1st and 2nd.
Obviously, we know that Fraser’s scores would qualify him for the Games no matter what regional he competed out of, but how different might the Central Regional leaderboard look with the addition of two Games veterans.
As anticipated, Mat Fraser would dominate, just like he did at the East Regional. Fraser’s times in the East would have given him three 1st place and three 2nd place finishes in the Central for the same 585 points and 1st place on the podium.
Paul Castillo, Streat Hoerner and Scott Panchik would all move down one spot to 2nd, 3rd and 4th, respectively.
The final spot, however, would have been shuffled a bit. Originally, Alex Anderson took 4th and Zak Carchedi took 5th overall. With the addition of Fraser and Muhammad, Carchedi would actually move up ahead of Anderson by 4 points to take 5th and the final qualifying spot. Anderson would take 6th followed by Shane McBride.
And to show how tough the Central Regional was this year, Muhammad would have dropped down to 10th place overall. Muhammad finished 4th at the South Regional in 2017.
Hypothetical Results
1) Mat Fraser – 585 pts
2) Paul Castillo – 453 points
3) Streat Hoerner – 445 pts
4) Scott Panchik – 440 pts
5) Zak Carchedi – 431 pts
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6) Alex Anderson – 427 pts
7) Shane McBride – 420 pts
10) Elijah Muhammad – 391 pts
Of course these are all hypothetical as Fraser, Muhammad and the rest of the athletes could have moved several places by competing alongside each other, but nonetheless it shows that the Central Regional will be even more exciting than it was last year in Nashville, Tennessee. On top of that, add a healthy Jacob Heppner to the mix and it could be the most exciting regional next year!
That is, if Castro doesn’t change the regional format.
