Photo by: CrossFit HQ

They came. They saw. They conquered.

CrossFit athletes from the South West, South Central and Latin America Region gave it their all on the final day of competition on Sunday at the Dallas Convention Center.

When all was said and done, only 5 of the men, women and teams would advance to the next and final stage of the road to the Games—Carson—in July.

Representatives from the South Regional standing on the podium included:

Men CrossFit Games Qualifiers 

1. Roy Gamboa (579 points)

2. Travis Williams (553 points)

3. Jordan Cook (549 points)

4. Adrian Conway (518 points)

5. Chad Cole (478 points)  

Women CrossFit Games Qualifiers

1. Camille Leblanc-Bazinet (650 points)

2. Margaux Alvarez (572 points)

3. Amanda Goodman (557 points)

4. Jenn Jones (539 points)

5. Maddy Myers (478 points)

Team CrossFit Games Qualifiers 

1.Ute CrossFit (628 points)

2. CrossFit Lubbock (541 points)

3. OPEX Red (535 points)

4. Backcountry Black (530 points)

5. CrossFit Jääkarhu (514 points)

With a new scoring system this year at Regionals [http://games.crossfit.com/article/your-guide-regional-scoring], every single event made a big difference in how athletes placed on the leaderboard.

Leblanc-Bazinet won by a landslide amongst the ladies—finishing no lower than top 5 throughout the weekend, solidifying 1st place on Events 4 and 6, as well as 2nd on Events 1, 5 and 7. Her determination to solidify her defending champion status was evident during Event 6 on Sunday (5 rounds of 25-calorie row, 16 chest-to-bar pull-ups, 9 strict deficit handstand pushups) as she went head to head with her rabbit, Natalie Newhart.

When the pair reached the wall for the final round of handstand push-ups, 

Leblanc-Bazinet got an extra boost of energy, speeding up with a final unbroken set of push-ups, leaving Newhart in the dust as she then sprinted away to the finish with a record time at 13:49.1. On the final event (15 muscle-ups and 5-rep clean ladder), Leblanc-Bazinet completed her muscle-ups in two sets, and met her match in Amanda Goodman—who completed her muscle-ups unbroken, and then breezed through the clean ladder, finishing the event first overall with a time of 1:21. Leblanc-Bazinet finished 8 seconds later at 1:29.6, followed by fresh face Maddy Myers (1:29.9)—an 18-year-old of Duke City CrossFit—who solidified the 5th and final place on the leaderboard to make her first ever appearance at the CrossFit Games. 

“Regionals will be all about soaking in this amazing opportunity and having fun, while giving it my all,” Myers said only two weeks before the big show this weekend. 

On the Men’s side, Roy Gamboa is back and action—sitting no lower than 1st place on the first, second and third days of competition. Last year, Gamboa missed qualification for what would have been his second Games appearance by only 1 point. There is no doubt that this year, he was on a mission to ensure that did not happen again—taking nowhere lower than a top 10 finish on every event throughout the weekend. 

In Carson, he will be joined by Games veterans Travis Williams and Jordan Cook, along with first timers, Adrian Conway (Level 1 Seminar Staff) and Chad Cole—a 25-year old who finished 4th overall at the South West Regional last year (one spot away from a Games ticket). 

Cole made a strong last drive on Event 6 today, claiming 1st place in the triplet (25 cal row, 16 chest to bar pull-ups and 9 strict handstand pushups), finishing well under the 16-minute cap in 12:04.7. 

Event 7 saw former Games veteran and loved CrossFit athlete Matt Chan fight to stay in the game, winning the fourth (2nd to last) heat with a time of 1:25, and bowing out of the 2015 Regional with a 9th place overall finish. 

As competition at the Open, Regional and Games level continues to mount each and every year, the names and faces staking their claim near the top continue to change as well. 

For the teams, three new teams took podium spots to advance to the Games this year, including: CrossFit Lubbock, OPEX Red, and CrossFit Jääkarhu, along with former Games contenders Ute CrossFit and Backcountry Black. 

“It’s pretty surreal,” Nick Shelton of CrossFit Lubbock said. “We all knew we had the potential to do it.

Jim Cowell, team member of OPEX Red echoed Shelton’s exclamations.

“We really took it one event at a time and know we have what it takes to hang with the others in Carson,” Cowell said. 

The team competition was ‘won’ amongst teams who had a strong foundation of strong, well-rounded individuals on the floor. 

For instance, as CrossFit HQ pointed out, ‘six years ago, muscle-ups were a rare skill among females on the CrossFit competition floor. In Event 6, they were little more than an inconvenience as 38 out of 39 teams’ females completed all 50 total muscles-ups in Team Event 6’s mash-up of GHD sit-ups, muscle-ups and hang power cleans.’

The teams with six individuals who had the ‘total package’ showed. OPEX Red, in particular, was able to keep their spot on the leaderboard (7th going into Day 3) with their 5th place overall finish on Event 6, followed by a strong 1st place finish in Event 7. 

Going into Event 7, the whole stadium was standing room only as Team OPEX Red became the first team of the entire regional weekend to finish Team Event 7—a conga line of rowing, strict handstand push-ups, toes-to-bars, overhead walking lunges and static holds—within the 20-minute time cap.

“We are all about the struggle—that's the story of OPEX,” said team member Erin Carter.

Unfortunately, that was not the case for CrossFit The Club and JekyllHyde Blue—two teams who had been strong contenders throughout the weekend up until the final event. Though both had been in qualifying positions before the event started, their ties for 21st and seventh places, respectively, knocked them down to sixth and seventh places overall.

CrossFit is the sport of the unknown and unknowable. 

Going into the first Regional weekend, there were no guarantees of who would be the last men, women and teams standing. 

With a fair share of some fresh faces, as well as Games veterans, the first-ever Super Regional seemed to be a smashing success: heightening the level of competition at the Regional level with combined Regions’ athletes battling it out for one of the top five spots. 

Related Articles: 
2015 Atlantic Regional Recap: Day 1
2015 South Regional Recap: Day 1
2015 South Regional Recap: Day 2