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What an incredible weekend of matches for the NPGL in Anaheim California. Kona was quite a treacherous mountain to climb and there were some surprises and some shout outs that we had to give after watching fantastic racing. We break down this weekend’s matches and try to give you some stand out moments that the NPGL may not have caught live as it was happening on the internet broadcast.
In Quadrant 3 we talked to one of those standout athletes, Colleen Fotsch from the San Francisco Fire. She is a Strength and Conditioning coach for University of California, Berkely. She also had one helluva career in swimming. Hear her take on this past weekend, the plans for the match coming up against LA, and what she likes to do for fun.
We want to give a big “THANK YOU” to Robb Hollen for giving us some Rain Man stats from the weekend which allowed us to re-watch the races and break down the happenings per quadrant versus the “big picture.” So thanks a bunch Robb!
Below are some highlights from the matches we saw over the weekend.
Boston Iron versus the Baltimore Anthem
- Dmitry Klokov was missed this past weekend. While he may have not been a huge factor in previous matches, he has the brute strength to handle the Kona balls and the mirror was a bunch of hang cleans. If he was at the match then it would have been a different narrative for many of the races.
- Boston Iron’s Whitney Gelin was a standout athlete and handled the Kona balls like they were beach balls. You can see her in an interview HERE.
- For the first time ever (at this point) both teams couldn’t finish a race. The second male echo was difficult for every team all weekend long for all of the teams except the New York Rhinos.
- Race 7 was again difficult for Baltimore when they have the players that could lift more weight. This is something that Baltimore has to rework before the start of next year’s GRID.
- Mike Abgarian was a freaking bullet out of a gun in any of the body weight movements on the GRID. His cycle time is out of this world.
- Fun fact of the day, Boston would have beaten every single Western team except for San Francisco Fire, who, they would have tied and gone into GridLock. The Eastern Region came to represent in Kona!
DC Brawlers versus New York Rhinos
- This was the closest match all weekend and these two teams were the top two performers of the entire weekend.
- New York women came to play! The New York women won the second echo and the triad in race 9.
- Nora Koppel was an outstanding player for New York and she’s a 40+ athlete! It was incredible to see her performance.
- DC had some communication errors throughout the back half of the match which was uncharacteristic for coach Cotler and crew.
- But to give credit where credit was due…Cotler and the coaching staff for the DC Brawlers were incredibly smart by having Tim Paulson hold back on doing anything else in the match but the walking lunges in Race 11. It was the difference maker and it won the match for the DC Brawlers.
Miami Surge versus the San Francisco Fire (whoops, we got this one wrong, still, 8-2 is not so bad)
- Holy crap…Tyler Cummings was tossing around Kona balls like golf balls and 9 foot rope climbs? No biggie, he’s got that too. What an amazing difference maker for San Francisco Fire.
- Benny Gerard was a beast in the mirror and Colleen Fotsch made a name for herself in Partner Forward and the echoes.
- Miami’s Nicole Capurso was a WORK HORSE for Miami. She never slowed down and if there is a bright spot for Miami it’s her and Marco Coppola. They were incredible all match long.
- Jolaine Undershute was a standout athlete for SF as well by busting out extra reps in the triad race and Jolaine had amazing cycle time in any barbell movement.
- Conan tried to question the squared up stance that Danny was making describing the stone over box movement for the Fire. Danny compared it to a baseball fielder’s stance and Conan said “Why does that have to be baseball, what about football?” Did a KICKER just ask to defend a football stance? Go home Conan, you’re drunk. LOL.
- The coaching change did not hurt San Francisco and they were ready to play this past weekend.
- Look for Miami to seek out revenge after this past weekend.
LA Reign versus Phoenix Rise
- Another fantastic close race that came down to Race 11.
- The fire in Danny Nichol’s eye is intense and that dude is just a freaking monster out on the GRID. There is just no beating him in anything that involves heavy weights.
- Blaine McConnel was incredible for PHX as a Q4 weight mover with Danny Nichols and they together were only 2 reps away from completing the second male echo. They would have only been the second team to finish that race.
- LA clearly phoned in race 6 so they were ready for the deadlift ladder, which worked! LA took home the overall total and the female total and it is my belief that it’s all due to the men relaxing on the second echo in this match.
- Race 8 was a sh*t show for both teams because we believe they had given their all so hard earlier in the match that they just were completely gassed.
- The men’s triad was also extremely difficult for LA and they could not get their front squats completed.
- James Townsend had his debut and something happened in Q1 of the mirror with him and the power cleans and the PHX Rise took a 20 rep lead due to his slow pace in the Mirror.
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