The fifth Sanctional of the season wrapped up this past weekend with 57 athletes competing for the top spot and an invitation to the CrossFit Games.
Rich Froning truly tested all athletes taking part in the competition with top programming inspired by ten years competing on the highest stage.
Tia-Clair Toomey took a decisive win with an incredibly dominant performance throughout the competition, having won all events but one, where she finished second.
Male winner Chandler Smith had his best finish on Event 4, where he placed third, yet his worse finish was 8th throughout the competition, keeping him among the top of the leaderboard and rewarding his consistency in the end with an overall win.
Athletes were tested in seven events throughout three days, with details of the first two events only being released on the day.
LEADERBOARD
Women
The women’s competition was won by three-times CrossFit Games champion Tia-Clair Toomey. She dominated all weekend long by winning six of the seven events. She was followed by Kristi Eramo O’Connell and Danielle Brandon.
- Tia-Clair Toomey
- Kristi Eramo O’Connell
- Danielle Brandon
- Feeroozeh Saghafi
- Rebecca Voigt Miller
I cannot thank the Mayhem team enough for putting on such a spectacular event and thank-you so much to all the volunteers, judges and organizers who made this event possible. 
A huge shout out to the crowd that cheered all weekend long and CONGRATULATIONS to everyone that competed and gave it their very best. We definitely have 2 great sanctional representatives going to the games from this event. 
@pattyorr_CrossFit Games invitation
The first two women have already earnt their spot at the CrossFit Games through the Open, so the Games invitation should go to Danielle Brandon.
However, once the Open invites are finalised and assuming Andrea Nisler, Brooke Haas and Taylor Williamson decline their invites (they’re all in the Top 20 and have qualified to the Games as part of a team), a spot through the Top 20 would be backfilled to Danielle Brandon.
This would mean Feeroozeh Saghafi, who finished in fourth place, would earn the Mayhem Classic invitation to the Games.
Men
Unlike the women’s field, not a single man won more than one event, so consistency at the top payed off at the end. Chandler Smith stood on top of the podium, marking his first Sanctional victory, with a 14-point lead over second place, Luke Schafer.
- Chandler Smith
- Luke Schafer
- Jeffrey Adler
- Kyle Bernier
- Connor Duddy
CrossFit Games invitation
As Chandler Smith secured his ticket back to the CrossFit Games through the Open, the Mayhem Classic invitation goes to former CrossFit Games OC3 Black team member, Luke Schafer.
Have a look at the full leaderboard here.
WORKOUTS
Friday kicked off with a Weighted Trail Run through the woods in Cookeville, Tennessee. This was followed on Saturday by heavy dumbbell squat snatches and handstand walks; with the number of reps decreasing but the weight of the dumbbells ascending up to 120/80.
Event four was a chipper featuring Assault Bike calories, GDH situps, bar muscle ups and Burpee Box Get-overs at 48” for both the men and the women.
Event 5 was won by Dylan Martin, who was one of just five men that finished the workout under the eight-minute time cap. Only two women completed Evet 6 within the time cap, the test included double unders with a Zeus Rope and alternating legless rope climbs.
The final event also only saw five women complete the workout before time ran out. One of them was Paige Powers, a 16-year-old athlete who is a two-times Teen Games podium finisher and trains at CrossFit Mayhem.
On programming an individual-only Sanctional, Rich Froning told the Morning Chalk Up: “Part of that is we’re in the gym so, logistically, it would be very hard. […] I want to make sure this is right before we expand to anything else and me still competing on a team, I didn’t feel exactly right having a direct impact on that. […] If I’m still competing I feel like it’s a conflict of interest.”
You can hear more about Froning’s ideas behind each workout here.
MAYHEM CLASSIC PAY-OUTS
Mayhem Classic had an overall prize purse of $81,000, given out to the top 10 athletes in each division.
RE-WATCH THE ACTION OF THE MAYHEM CLASSIC
Saturday events
Sunday events
Next up in the CrossFit Sanctionals calendar:
CrossFit Strength in Depth will take place on January 24-26 in London.