RIDGEFIELD — With one 25-minute push left to conquer on Sunday afternoon, plenty of work remained for the top men competitors at third edition of the CrossFit Fort Vancouver Championships.
A total of 150 points were available over three fitness challenges and five of the 16 two-man teams were in the running for prize money.
Among them were Adam Neiffer and Allan Dunlap. The duo from Vancouver was in third place as the final 25-minute push began at the Clark County Event Center.
By completing the first two challenges quicker than anyone else, Neiffer and Dunlop scored 100 points to put pressure on the leaders. But Sam Kwant and Drew Barquist had enough of a lead and enough energy to hold on for first place after two days and 10 fitness challenges.
Neiffer and Dunlap finished in second place.
“We really didn’t worry about what the point-spread was. We just try to control our own performance,” Neiffer said. “In the last event we just put the gas pedal down from the beginning. When the dust settled we were very excited to be on the podium with a talented group of athletes.”
Those athletes — 32 men and 32 women competing as two-person teams — came from British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. Many aspire to qualify for the 2016 CrossFit Games, the annual world fitness championship staged by CrossFit, Inc.
Winning a bit of cash is nice for those who finished on the podium, but the real draw of the CrossFit Fort Vancouver Championships was the chance to be tested by top-flight competition.
“Whether you win or lose, you’re competing against a bunch of good people so it’s going to make you better,” Dunlap said.
The experience was an unexpected challenge for Betsy Simser. The Clackamas, Ore., resident who trains at CrossFit Fort Vancouver showed up on Saturday to support her friends. But the former gymnast at Seattle Pacific University jumped into the action when a back injury left Vancouver resident Andrea Roozen without a partner after the first event.
“I saw Betsy hanging out in the stands, and she’s the only one I could think of who might be willing to jump in at the last minute,” Roozen said. “I ran over to her and gave her a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. She changed really quick — didn’t have time to warm up — and just jumped in.”
Simser said she had a blast — even though she and Roozen weren’t eligible to compete for prize money and finished at the bottom of the women’s scoring.
“For not knowing what the workouts were I think I did well. (Andrea) did a really awesome job of telling me what to do and the game plan,” Simser said.
Carleen Mathews of Portland and Chelsea Nicholas of Bellevue teamed up to win the women’s competition. They trained together on four weekends to prepare for this competition. They earned maximum points in the final three-challenge event to claim first place.
Mathews played soccer and softball growing up; Nicholas was a gymnast who tried in college the pole vault. Each said she found a welcome competitive outlet in CrossFit.
Mathews, who competed at this Fort Vancouver event for the second time, said it is an ideal early-season competition.
“They’re fun events that are challenging and hard, but they”re not killing us,” she said.
Men’s champions Kwant from Burlington and Barquist from Lynnwood won the first two events on Saturday and were top-three finishers in six of the 10 challenges on their way to the victory in their first Fort Vancouver Championships.
Both were introduced to CrossFit by their mothers. Kwant was a cross country runner in high school. Barquist a wrestler who began CrossFit training to build strength for wrestling.
He said CrossFit competitions are like “wrestling with a barbell. That’s the kind of intensity at which you’re going at these workouts.”
