CrossFit Athletic Group

Previously: All-Entertainment Session, Best Session, Best Beast Mode

Much like the All-Entertainment Session, the Bring Your A-Game Session consists of 8 people and takes session chemistry and dynamic into account; for example, if the girls side consisted of Murley, Shannon, Jennifer, and Katie Bromm, we’d be great on the endurance side of workouts, but lacking in the barbell or gymnastics strength areas. If I had to pick 8 people – 4 boys and 4 girls – to represent the Champions Club at the CrossFit Games, here’s who I would pick. I also anointed a “captain” for both the boys and girls sides just for the hell of it. Let the debates begin.

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Ryan Richard (captain, winter 2012)

BYAG against this one

Since most of you who read this site now have never met Ryan Richard, I am going to talk about myself for a bit (or, a bit more than usual) because I am someone you can relate to. I mean, sure, I could say Ryan was a combination of Evan’s lower body strength, Jacob’s upper body strength, Jay’s technique, Fry’s intensity, Mr. Bennis’s building skills, Shannon’s attendance, Coach’s Casey’s nutrition habits, and Johnny J’s spelling ability, but where’s the fun in that?

As a college basketball-playing CrossFit athlete, most of my workouts were done with Brian the Trainer, which basically meant I was working out against myself. He’d smoke me on max effort days, I’d smoke him in the running ones, and once a year when Elizabeth came up we’d literally kill ourselves to see who would win. The compare-to link was my main competition on most occasions.

I still get nervous before some workouts and nothing was different back then. It was not a question of whether or not I was going to lose a workout because I didn’t really lose workouts, it was all about knowing what it would cost me if I decided to pr. I used to call it going to “that place.” That place is a dark corner of your mind when you decide you would rather die than not reach your desired outcome. Usually, death would be preferable. In spring 2009 I hit a score of 425 on Fight Gone Bad. When it came up again that August I knew I had the capacity to beat that and I knew I wanted to. I threw up before the workout due to nerves and threw up after due to a 3-rep pr. It was the worst I had ever felt from anything in my life other than The Spot in the 2016 Ohio State-Michigan game. Actually, it might have been worse than that. Either way, I decided to never do FGB again and still haven’t. I think Mel has done the same thing with either Barbara or Cindy. Regardless, my obsessive nature and CrossFit’s workout format allowed me to do really well competing against myself. Then in the fall of 2009 a kid named Ryan Richard accidentally walked into the weight room with Matt Landrith. My workout mindset would never be the same again.

Ryan was a young-for-his-grade sophomore at the time of his first CrossFit workout, around 8 months before the Champions Club was formed. By the time we moved into the Fieldhouse in spring 2011 the elephant in the room could not be ignored any more: there was a possibility that Chris Sinagoga was no longer the fittest person in the Champions Club. I mean, I probably was, but seriously, Ryan was that good. He beat me in Fran, 1 rep max clean and jerk and a few other workouts, plus he was the fittest person in the gym at two separate CrossFit competitions – all before he graduated from high school. My pre-workout nerves no longer came from thoughts of prs, but rather from thoughts of losing to a 16 year old lax bro.

The scariest part of competing against Ryan, for me, was Ryan also had the ability to go to “that place” just as much as I did, which made some workouts absolutely miserable. In 2012 at our current location we did one-on-one sessions with the intention of competing in the CrossFit Open. I didn’t really do a great job coaching him and he didn’t qualify for Regionals, but the numbers he put up and the capacity he had at the time is still the most impressive I’ve ever seen in the Champions Club. Three years later, they created a teenage division for the CrossFit Games. Oh well, he’s probably off somewhere drinking hyena milk and hunting moose with his bare hands.

Best at: short, fast burning Fran/Elizabeth-types, Olympic lifts

Surprisingly good at: muscle-ups, pull-ups, running 400s, swimming

Phone a friend for: spelling. Seriously, he once texted me, “What’s the ‘squedel’ for this week?”

David Saporito (Summer 2017)

Pissed

Besides myself and Cecilia, David Saporito is the only other person in the gym I would label as competitive. Sure, everyone has some competitiveness to them, and when given the choice of preference between winning and losing, everyone would prefer not to lose. But, I mean, I went to class every now and then, and A’s were nice, but I wouldn’t label myself as a student. David Saporito is a true competitor, and there lies his greatest strength as a CrossFit athlete. My biggest fear is to have Helen come up while my ankle is nice and shiny and Saporito is in CrossFit shape. I think the AED might be finally put to use.

Sap came to the gym in the middle of The Freaks takeover, left for a while, then came back a few years later when his running career at Eastern Michigan was done. He never liked running in the first place, but realized he was really good at it and enjoyed competing. During Summer 2017, Saporito showed a scary combination of endurance and power, most notably in that 800mrun/front squat workout, where he made 225-lbs. look routine while still doing what you’d expect him to do on the runs. He also came through with a sub 3-minute Fran time on a mobility day without warming up.

Whatever Sap lacks in his nutrition or attendance he can make up for in his competitiveness. Like Ryan, Sap has the ability to go to “that place” whenever he wants, and can maintain that intensity for workouts at any duration. More than that, Saporito is also an athlete, meaning if he were asked to perform a new skill on the spot, I’m confident he’d pick it up as quick as anyone. He’d be the first pick in Coach T’s Liftetime Fitness class for dodgeball, basketball, football, golf, badminton, or CrossFit.

Best at: middle-duration workouts, medium-weight lifts, running,

Surprisingly good at: back squats, cleans

Phone a friend for: a deadlift form competition, snatches, working out in the sun, if Chris Sinagoga asks for help moving a tire to the gym

Matt Fecht (Summer 2015)

Fecht was caught in the middle of Inappropriate Touch Tuesdays

Early on in my time coaching Matt I asked him why professional marathon runners don’t generally chose to just tag the first-place runner and stick with them until it’s time to kick. After all, it’s a common strategy in track for the mile or 2 mile. His response: “no offense Chris, but that’s because in the mile you can fake it a bit.”

So here I was thinking I was going to “that place,” but compared to Matt I’m just faking it.

There are people in the gym who can relate to running a marathon, and there are people who can relate to being on the hot seat for their job; Matt’s hot seat depends on how well he runs a marathon. That is something nobody reading this can relate to (unless you’re out there creeping on us, Lanni!).

Matt doesn’t have quite the overall athleticism that Sap does, but he is definitely not Just a Runner. So when Matt started at the Champions Club in October 2014 the potential he had in terms of CrossFit capacity was obvious. I also learned early on that trying to get Matt fatigued in terms of endurance/breathing was absolutely pointless. Like, “Hey guy, here’s this thing called Cindy that makes Mr. Wonsil really tired! Why don’t you try this out?” Nope, 29 rounds and a brief hands-on-knees later I knew I had to adjust things a bit.

The emphasis on coach Matt was overall coordination and strength in his midline. And when I wanted to test his tolerance for discomfort, we’d push the stamina button. On a set of 30 rep max back squats, he said a swear word for the first time since he was in high school. Summer 2015 is when his technique really got consistent and was able to cycle through barbell movements faster.

Best at: no exaggeration, might have the capacity to do Murph faster than any human being on the planet. No other marathon runners have muscles like him, and no other muscular people have the endurance and stamina he does.

Surprisingly good at: jumping, pistols, powerlifts

Phone a friend for: Olympic lifts, overhead movements

Jay (winter 2019-2020)

Hello down there.

Jay Junkin is the definition of CrossFit: great at nothing, good at everything. Relative to anyone not competing in the sport of CrossFit, Jay truly does not have a weakness in his physical skillset. In true CrossFit fashion, he is also dedicated to a low trajectory towards a distant horizon. It is pretty common in here to see athletes in here peak in the Summer then fade out a bit as the fall comes. Jay was as fit as I’ve ever seen him last Summer, then very slowly and surely got slightly more fit during the fall and winter, with prs in his lifts and benchmark workouts.

One of the really impressive things about Jay’s CrossFit capacity is comparing it to how often his height puts him at a disadvantage. For every running, rope climb and wallball workout, there’s squats, push presses, and hip extensions that make him go through more range of motion than anyone. No wonder he just ignores me when I tell him to get fully overhead on kettlebell swings; leaving his arms short and shooting his head down evens the playing field a bit. But Jay has made up for this with technique. When it comes to cleans, snatches, and kipping Jay moves as smooth as anyone I’ve seen. Not too fast, not too slow, he just finds a rhythm and rides it out.

This last spot on the guy’s side was pretty close, as Jason and JZ were next in consideration. Jay got the nod because you know exactly what you’re going to get out of him. Boring is good. And we know Jay is going to eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch, walk into the gym with his work clothes on, mess around with some scorpion-looking handstands for a bit, then do his workout the same whether Saporito or Mrs. Carey was next to him. Tim Duncan of the Champions Club, anyone?

Best at: Jay moving at Jay’s pace, also rope climbs and Mario Baseball

Surprisingly good at: snatches, double front flips off the high dive

Phone a friend for: Rogain? seriously, I don’t think he’d be out of place in any workout

Murley (captain, Summer 2016)

That's Shakes's weight on OHS!

Nicole Murley had/has an advantage over everyone else in the gym. It’s not being a coach, or having a key to the gym, or running 4 years of college cross country, or understanding the reason behind why the technique is the way it is, or being with me, or being 10 years into CrossFit. Nope, it’s this: when the timer starts Murley is literally working out for her life. She is so unrealistically scared of being fat and out-of-shape that she thinks this workout she is doing right now is the only thing standing between her and lifetime of wearing a moo-moo and having to ride around grocery aisles in those motor carts. That is her advantage. Which, if you relate that to CrossFit’s latest update of their continuum:

Yeah, I don’t get it either.

Summer 2016 Murley was absolutely insane. She had an endurance base built up while training for her senior season at Madonna, had a consistent winter and spring of CrossFit training, and was often placed in sessions that helped her push the limits of her capacity: bodyweight workouts with the Banets, weightlifting workouts with Shakes, and running workouts with Shannon and Matt. Usually in CrossFit someone who comes in like 12th place in every workout would win a competition, but Murley would win literally every workout here. And while we don’t have Matt Frasers and Katrin Davidsdottirs, we have some very impressive competition. Murley’s power output in the short, medium, and long duration was just dumb and left names like Banet and Shannon and Shakes fighting for second place.

The most underrated part of Murley’s physical toolbag is her athleticism. She can throw, catch, swim, bike, tumble, climb, and jump in just about any combination she is asked. Her timing on the skilled movements like Olympic lifts and kipping pull-ups allowed for her to keep consistent in later rounds, and even use guys rx’d weight on occasions. Whether she wants to admit it or not, Nicole Murley is the fittest female the Champions Club has ever seen.

Best at: Annie, Kelly, Filthy 50, Fight Gone Bad

Surprisingly good at: clean and jerks, handstand walking, has done muscle-ups before

Phone a friend for: heavy-ish squatting, dips

Shannon (Summer 2014)

Up north!

Shannon Marchant is about as physically gifted as it is possible for a white female to be, give or take 3 inches of height. Yet she came in with an injury history we’d expect from Adam Bordoley. In fact, in our first phone conversation Shannon mentioned that she was planning on quitting track due to her injuries and wanted to try CrossFit after seeing it on TV. Yeah effing right, I thought to myself. Shannon was going to learn to run, brace her midline, mobilize herself, then Holy Timbits watch out Horizon League!

During Summer 2013 Shannon transformed herself from injured runner to an athlete capable of competing at any level in anything she wanted. The era she joined the gym was perfect for her also, with the Banets just being born and raised and the Northwood football crew invading. Almost every workout at those 7 pm sessions were an exciting competition. We tried to do the form thing, but you can only do so much with Alex Faust in the building.

She continued her training through the school year – sometimes in a one-on-one capacity – and really solidified herself as a top athlete here during Summer 2014, where, among other great workouts, she did her infamous Double-Helen pr. Her secret ability is she never gets tired. I don’t know where this came from or if anyone else is allowed to borrow this from her, but she’ll do something like Murph, put up a really good time, then immediately start running the last mile with 12 different people to help them finish. Most of us have a difficult enough time getting our legs to the drinking fountain after 300 squats and 1600 meters. Most of us also have to come down at some point during a 10-minute handstand hold.

Best at: Michael, fast air squats, multiple workouts in a day, handstand holds

Surprisingly good at: heavy squats, dips

Phone a friend for: anything that involves falling

Shakes (honestly any time, but probably spring 2018)

135 was guys rx'd on cleans

In her AOTS Feature editorial, I said that the Champions Club’s view of CrossFit ability is skewed a bit because workouts are scaled. Are all you girls and moms of the gym ready for a harsh reality check? You are supposed to use Katie Shakes’s weight for every workout. Let that marinate for a minute.

Shakes is the opposite of Saporito in the CrossFit sense. You look at Sap and would never guess he can lift heavy; you look at Shakes and never guess she has better endurance than just about anyone. She is kind of like Jay in the sense of not deviating from her comfortable pace for most workouts, but the thing is her comfortable pace with heavy weight on the bar is our comfortable pace with no weight on the bar. She is also like Jay here in the sense that not much needs to be said about her. If I asked you to pick the three fittest girls in the gym right now, every single person would have Shakes on the list, somewhere with probably Fry and Jack Decker.

2016 was Shakes’s Athlete of the Summer banner, but 2018 was probably Shakes at her best. It’s hard to tell, though, because we see her every day and are used to it. I just remember 2018 being her most consistent months of training. She also pr'd on Michael and Helen during those months, and did Murph as rx'd. Her capacity to lift heavy weights - both in a max effort setting and a metcon setting - coupled with her ability to carry that out over long durations,plus her rock solid technique makes her a must for this list.

Best at: deadlifts, kettlebell swings

Surprisingly good at: sprints, middle distance running, long distance running, box jumps

Phone a friend for: seriously Shakes, you’re 6 years into CrossFit… hold onto the pull-up bar for more than 6 seconds without crying like Crawford over a spilled birthday cake

Elizabeth (Summer 2015)

Yes, these are clapping pull-ups she was doing in a workout

A fully-formed Elizabeth Banet is a problem on a CrossFit competition floor. The first problem an opponent would come across, of course, is dealing with the overwhelming sense of insignificance and jealousy they’d get when looking at Elizabeth’s physique. Then there’s the, you know, working out thing. It is one thing to get dusted by someone who flails around and just happens to be better than you, but it is another thing to look over in the middle of a workout and see Elizabeth one round ahead of you moving just as elegantly as she did at the start, without any trace of struggle on her face. If you’re lucky, you won’t be asked to anything upside down, because then the real humiliation would begin.

Excluding Murley… or maybe even including her… it’s close… Elizabeth Banet is the best mover the Champions Club has ever seen. And her form never breaks down. Ever. It is one thing to move great on a For Quality day, but it is a different world when trying to move great at the highest intensity possible. In her namesake benchmark workout, her cleans and dips went unbroken nearly all the way through and the difference between round 21 and 9 were not distinguishable. She has the capacity to go to “that place” and looks better than anyone else doing so.

The last spot for the girl’s side of this was a really close call. Erika Banet and Ashley Fry were right up there. Jennifer Banet and Lauren Higgins were in consideration too, but we already have a Murley and Shakes. Erika’s spring/Summer 2015 was absolutely outstanding, and we all remember what Fry did last Summer. Come to think of it, senior year Emma was probably the closest. Elizabeth gets the nod here because of her speed and athleticism in all movements. She can deadlift fast, muscle-up slow, handstand walk far, and everything in between despite being the youngest athlete on the list. Elizabeth dominates everything is a well-deserved tag on this site.

Best at: handstand push-ups, pistols, ring dips

Surprisingly good at: long distance running, rope climbs

Phone a friend for: uh... anyone want to volunteer to sub Elizabeth out of the game? Didn't think so.

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Honorable mention: Jason (Summer 2014), JZ (winter 2014-2015), AJ Morey (Summer 2013), Nick Prys (Summer 2011), Cap'n Jack (Spring 2016), Emma (spring 2013), Fry (Summer 2019), Jennifer (Summer 2018), Erika Banet (Summer 2015), Lauren Higgins (Summer 2014), Meghan Murley (Summer 2013), Erica Krueger (Summer 2018).