Back Squat
2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2 reps

Conquer Denver Recap – Roots Takes 6th!

This past weekend the Roots Crew took on 22 of the Denver area’s best CrossFit gyms in a 10 person team showdown. What a weekend it was! All the teams and athletes were kept in suspense of what the workouts would be and had little time to determine who was doing which event. Every team member contributed to the 6th place finish with amazing efforts in a wide variety of workouts, read on for details!

Friday: The team arrived in Castle Rock on Friday afternoon, with workouts starting around 7 pm.

Workout #1, “C2B and 4 Square” – a C2B and hopping workout. The team Abby Knowles and Dave Lee started the team off strong with a 5th place finish in a surprisingly tricky workout.

Workout #2, “Jumbo’s Triple” – a heavy squat, deadlift and power clean workout, was dominated by Blaine Guenther and Cindy Arangua. They crushed the heavy loads and finished in 3rd place.

Workout #3, “SS Isa Partner Style” – squat snatch Isabel! Walker Savidge and Ali Minton flew through 60 squat snatches in 5:13 to secure a 7th place finish.

Workout #4, “Chippa What Chippa Who” – the only event of the competition where all 10 team members competed together. This consisted of 100 dead lifts, 100 med ball partner sit-ups, 100 squat cleans, 100 shoulder to overhead and 20+ bar muscle ups. Ladies first, then the guys. Thanks to excellent communication, the ladies finished in time to get the guys to the bar muscle ups and finished in 7th place overall.

Saturday: Competition got started around 10 am. Roots was in 6th place going into today’s events.

Workout #5, “Double Trouble” – dubs, push-ups and T2B, a fast and furious workout of concentration. Megan Isherwood and Chris Dizon secured a 14th place finish and kept the teams momentum going into day 2.

Workout #6, “Underrated” – the rings came out for dips followed by 1 arm KB overhead squats. We sent in Hillary Harris and Dave who kept a steady and methodical pace to finish in 11th place.

Workout #7, “Quad-ra-fry” – yup, this was a leg burner! Front squats and lunges. With little notice, Megan and Shane Upchurch stepped up to the plate and entered the burn zone for an 11th place finish.

Workout #8, “Raising the Bar” – MORE front squats(!) and bar muscle ups. Abby and Walker tackled the moderately heavy FS load and the bar muscle ups with ease, earning a 3rd place finish.

Workout #9, “Oly Lifting Meet” – this was cool. They had a USAW Olympic Lifting meet going on during the first 3 workouts of the day. Each team picked one athlete to represent their gym. Walker hit his PR’s on snatch and clean and jerk for a 215 kg total. While he earned a 10th place finish for team Roots, the highlight of this event was Walker lifting in his Garmin bibs.

Workout #10, “6000m Row” – 1 guy, 1 girl, 3k row each. Cindy and Blaine took on the daunting task of a max effort 3k row. Yes, it hurt as much as you would expect! They rowed their way to a 6th place finish.

Workout #11, “Snatches and Balls” – 8 min AMRAP of snatches and slam balls. Hillary kicked it off with blazing speed on the ladies side, while Shane followed through with a solid score for the men. A 5th place finish helped Roots maintain their overall 6th place position.

Workout #12, “So Complex” – a barbell complex of 1 power clean, 1 jerk, 2 back squats, 1 behind the neck jerk & repeat without putting the bar down. Ali completed the complex at 135 and Blaine showed his strength to complete 255 with ease. They finished in 7th place.

Workout #13, “Death by P/T” – everyone’s favorite combo, pullups and thrusters! Abby and Dave displayed picture perfect butterfly pullups with Cindy and Walker completing thrusters at a very quick place to secure another top 3 finish for team Roots.

Workout #14, “Grace Who” – partner heavy Grace! Megan and Dizon worked their way through clean and jerks at 95, 135, and 165 lbs. They finished in 16th place after a very solid effort.

Workout #15, “Get Outta My Way” – the team finale! A chipper of a 20 cal row, 25 C2B pullups, 30 heavy wall balls & 20 overhead squats. Abby set the pace for team Roots and was the first competitor through the chipper. Walker, Cindy, Blaine, Hillary and Dave completed the workout, winning our heat and finishing in 5th overall.

The coaches could not be more proud of the team this weekend. Everyone pushed their comfort zones and gave it their all throughout the grueling weekend. The 6th place finish was well deserved.

A very special thanks goes out to Dre, Mango, Stef, Ari and Rick for making the trek down to Castle Rock and showing their support. We appreciate it more than you know.