The Kill Cliff East Coast Championships (ECC), one of the biggest functional fitness competitions outside of the CrossFit Games, took place this past weekend at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Big-name athletes including Brooke Ence, Noah Ohlsen, Brooke Wells, and Katrin Davidsdottir all turned up to compete, but the competition belonged to eventual winners Mat Fraser and Sara Sigmundsdottir—who also happened to be reigning champions from last year’s event.
The ECC takes place over the course of two days, with Saturday reserved for individual
competition followed by the team competition on Sunday. As mentioned, the field was stacked with elite competitors, including Ohlsen, fresh off his victory at Wodapalooza a week prior. However, it was Fraser who set the pace early on, setting a blistering time of 02:43 in Amanda (9-7-5 reps: Muscle-Ups, Snatches at 135/95lbs), followed by a 360.2lb clean and jerk , good enough for 5th in the event (first place went to Jeff Evans, who hit a 380.2lb lift). Fraser had finishes of 3rd and 1st in his final two events, giving him 368 total points and a repeat victory (Ohlsen was 2nd with 338 points, while 2013 Games competition Garret Fisher finished 3rd with 322 points).
The individual women’s field was a little less stacked than the men’s, but still featured plenty of firepower in Games competitors Sigmundsdottir, Maddy Myers, Brooke Ence and 2015 CrossFit Games champion Davidsdottir. Myers started off quickly with a 3:34 finish in Amanda, with Sigmundsdottir just behind her in second with a 3:37 finish. Myers then grabbed a 2nd place finish in the clean and jerk (255.2lbs—the event was won by Taylar Stallings who lifted 260.2lbs), but finished 13th in Big Fat Frelen (400m run before each round 21-15-9 reps of: chest-to-bar pull-ups, Russian kettlebell swings 100/70lbs, thrusters at 95/65lbs). That event was won by Sigmundsdottir, who took 4th in the individual final to retain her championship with 358 points. Second place went to Myers (348 points), while Tasia Percevecz surprisingly took 3rd with 338 points.
During the Saturday competition, spectators and competitors alike were treated to an Olympic Weightlifting demo from 15-year-old CJ Cummings (a multiple youth, junior and senior American record holder) and Lauren Fisher (who represented the USA at three international weightlifting meets in 2014). You can check out their lifts in the videos below:
On Sunday it was the team’s turn to compete, but one name found itself on the podium yet again. Sigmundsdottir competed alongside Kari Pearce, Travis Williams and Nick Urankar on Team FitAid 2 as they racked up nine top-5 finishes (including two event wins) to finish with 699 points, good enough for the overall victory. Second place went to Shake and Bake (Mat Fraser, Cole Sager, Katrin Davidsdottir, Rachel Martinez) with 677 points, while Nutriforce (Elijah Muhammad, Frederik Aegidius, Annie Thorisdottir, Michele Letendre) grabbed 3rd with 671 points.
The top-3 finishers in the individual categories enjoyed winnings of $15,000, $5,000 and $3,000 respectively, while the Teams cashed in on $24,000 (for 1st), $12,000 and $6,000.
Photo courtesy of Oxumedia
