2024 CrossFit Games North America East Semifinal Winners and Qualifiers: Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr and Jeffrey Adler Reign at Syndicate Crown

With additional writing by Teaganne Finn and Kay Wiese

Death, taxes, and Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr standing atop the podium — few things in life are more certain, and there’s not much left to say about the six-time champ’s return to the Semifinal floor. 

Toomey-Orr took five event wins on her last stop before Fort Worth and another date with history this summer.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Carlos Fleury (@carlitosfleury)

[Related: 20 Unbelievable Stats From Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr’s Career (So Far)]

Behind her on the podium were Alexis Raptis in second and Emma Lawson in third. Both looked fit as they looked to build upon very successful Games runs in 2023 (sixth for Raptis, second for Lawson).

• Rounding out the top five were fan favorite Danielle Brandon in fourth and 2023 Games rookie Shelby Neal (who spent some time training with Brent Fikowski) in fifth.

On the men’s side, it was a battle for the podium as well as along the cutline for three days straight. 

When the dust settled, the reigning Fittest Man on Earth, Jeffrey Adler, took home gold by three points over Dallin Pepper, who took silver by three points over Roman Khrennikov.

• More than 70 points back, Jayson Hopper took fourth, while Samuel Cournoyer finished in fifth.    

Here’s what went down in Knoxville.

Women’s Division

[Related: Powerbuilding Workout Routine]

The third heat in Event 4 showcased a neck-and-neck battle between two women who really needed top performances: Brooke Wells and Anikha Greer. 

Wells entered the day in the dangerous 11th-place position, while Greer was on the outside looking in at 14th overall.

• The two were within a second of each other the entire race until the final 800-meter row when Wells pulled a few seconds ahead before sprinting her final handstand walk, finishing five seconds before Greer. 

These performances held up for second and fourth in the event, helping Wells jump into a safer position in sixth and pulling Greer onto the right side of the cutline, eighth, for the first time all weekend.

The final heat, though, belonged to Haley Adams, who added an event win to her pair of second-place finishes so far. 

• The win vaulted Adams from 10th (because of a 35th-place finish on Event 2) into fifth overall.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Morning Chalk Up (@morningchalkup)

As for Toomey-Orr, she stayed as close to Adams as she could throughout the event but wasn’t quite able to match Adams’ speed. Still, she did enough for a third-place overall finish.

• Worth noting: Toomey-Orr’s third-place finish broke her 12 consecutive Semifinals event wins, dating back to 2021. But if there’s one area of the sport that she hasn’t typically dominated, it’s handstand walking. So to see her finish third in the event actually shows considerable improvement compared to the field. 

On the Bubble

Erica Folo, Fee Saghafi, and Caroline Stanley moved in the wrong direction on the leaderboard after Event 4. Folo, 28th in the event, dropped from sixth to 11th, while Saghafi, looking to earn her third CrossFit Games invite, dropped to 17th and Stanley to 14th.

[Related: Best Pre-Workout Supplements]

Coming off her worst Semifinals event finish (third), Toomey-Orr came charging back on Event 5, snatching with ease en route to yet another event win in a time of 5:02.60.

In the fight for silver between Raptis and Lawson, this time it was Lawson’s turn to shine. She edged Raptis out by five seconds, good enough for third on the event, behind Toomey-Orr and 2023 Games rookie Shelby Neal.

One big thing: Adams, who has notoriously struggled on strength events in the past, continued to show that taking a year off last season paid off. She had no trouble getting through the snatches and locked up a top-10 finish (eighth), keeping her safely in fifth overall.

• Worth noting: Games veterans Danielle Brandon and Brooke Wells also continued with their consistent performances on Event 5, both putting up top 10 finishes, helping keep them safely in qualification spots (fourth and sixth at the time, respectively).

Event 5 continued to shake things up on the bubble. Paige Semenza was able to move up a spot from ninth to eighth, while Greer dropped from eighth to 10th, and Folo remained in the gatekeeper position in 11th. 

• Further, Lexy Neely jumped from 13th to ninth after a fifth-place finish on Event 5, while Lydia Fish dropped from 10th to 16th after a 35th-place finish.

Heading into the final event, only 20 points separated Chloe Gauvin-David in 14th and Folo in 11th.

[Related: Best BCAA Supplements]

With Toomey-Orr so far ahead of the field in the top spot, all eyes were on the bubble athletes in Event 6: Neely in ninth, Greer in 10th, Folo in 11th, Stanley in 12th, Saghafi in 13th, and Chloe Gauvin-David in 14th.

All five of them still had great shots at snagging one of the final two Games invitations.

Competing in Heat 3, most of the women finished the bike at around the same time, but it was Neely and Folo who were able to go unbroken on the muscle-ups and were the first to the walking lunge.

• But then, both Neely and Folo all but collapsed on the walking lunge, receiving multiple no reps. They essentially watched the entire field pass them, led by Gauvin-David, 20 points out of 11th, who came out of nowhere to take the heat win. Her time held up for a sixth-place finish in the event.
• Stanley, too, managed to pass both Neely and Folo on the lunge, good enough for a 13th-place finish.

In the final heat, after missing the Games by just one spot in both 2021 and 2023, Greer looked poised and in control until she ran into trouble on the walking lunge when she was called back to redo an entire section. 

• She wound up 24th in the event, and then it was time to wait.

Once the numbers were crunched, it was Gauvin-David who jumped from 14th to ninth, while  Stanley did enough to move from 12th to 10th. 

The last spot went to Neeley by just one point over a heartbroken Greer, who wound up one spot outside of the cutline for the third time in four years.

[Related: Best Bumper Plates]

Men’s Division

Entering the final day of competition, Roman Khrennikov sat in first place with a six-point lead, followed by the 2023 Games champ Jeff Adler. Saxon Panchik was in third, with Dallin Pepper behind him in fourth. 

Sunday proved to be a major moving day for some athletes, though, and that held true for several of the men sitting on the bubble. 

As expected, the fight for the podium continued through to the very final event of the competition. 

Remind me: 11 men qualify for the 2024 CrossFit Games out of the North America East Semifinal.

In Event 4, which proved to be a true test of both aerobic capacity on the rower interspersed with handstand walking, Jack Farlow set the time to beat in the first heat at 7:40.23. 

Unfortunately, Farlow, who clinched the 10th qualifying spot out of the Semifinals in 2023, didn’t have it this year, finishing the weekend in 17th place. 

Jayson Hopper took the event with a time of 7:32.30. 

• Athletes on the bubble going into the final day included Jack Rozema, Luke Parker, Taylor Self, and Dre Strohm. 

Rozema won Event 5 in the final heat with a speedy time of 5:13.37, which helped him secure his spot in the Games for the first time. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Carlos Fleury (@carlitosfleury)

• Like many athletes through the Semifinals stage, Rozema got off to a slow start but built on the last day with three top-10 finishes. He ended the weekend in sixth place overall. 

Samuel Cournoyer was roughly 16 seconds slower than Rozema and took second in Event 5. 

Heading into Event 6, Games veteran Travis Mayer was right on the bubble in 12th place overall. 

He needed to go full-send in this workout and did just that, taking eighth place and locking in 10th place overall. 

He will take his eighth trip to the Game. 

• Event 6 was all about the athlete’s ability to hold onto the dumbbells during the lunges while avoiding costly mistakes. 

The standings heading into the final event had Adler in first place, Khrennikov in second, and Pepper in third. 

• Other athletes in the bottom half of the cutline were Luke Parker, Tyler Christophel, and Alexandre Caron. 

Fortunately, Event 6 turned out to be Caron’s best event of the weekend, pulling him up to ninth from 11th place overall. 

• His third-place finish proved to be enough to send him to the Games. 
• Parker had a rough final event, but managed to slide into the last qualifying spot, falling from ninth heading into the event to 11th place. 

The 2023 Games champion, Adler, did it again, winning the North America East Semifinal just three points ahead of Pepper. Khrennikov took third place, with Hopper in fourth and Cournoyer rounding out the top 5. 

Rozema took sixth, Saxon Panchik had a solid weekend and finished seventh, and new kid on the block Austin Hatfield slipped into eighth. Here are the final qualifiers for the men:

Team Division

Peak 360 CrossFit Debuts: Stepping onto the competition floor for the first time as a team, Peak 360 CrossFit did not disappoint. 

• The team — comprised of CrossFit legend Noah Ohlsen, team veteran Tola Morakinyo, former Oslo Navy Blue member Lena Richter, and three-time Games veteran Matilde Garnes — took home event wins in every single event, except for one.

While this is Noah Ohlsen’s first season as a team athlete, he has proven that combining his skills with the impressive team experience of Richter and Morakinyo creates an unstoppable force on the floor.

Though nothing can be certain in the sport of fitness, this super team also presents another opportunity for both Morakinyo and Richter to vie for the top of the podium yet again.

• In 2022 and 2023, Morakinyo competed with super teams for CrossFit Reykjavik (with Annie Thorisdottir, Khan Porter, and Lauren Fisher) and PRVN Fitness (with former Mayhem superstars Andrea Nisler and Taylor Williamson, as well as Games veteran Tim Paulson). Neither team won overall.
• In a similar boat, Lena Richter has represented CrossFit Oslo at the Games every year since 2021. However, in that time, Oslo has only finished second or third and Richter has yet to stand atop the podium.

Another Bubble Popped: While North America East featured one of the deepest Games cut lines in the team division, the action was fierce, and top teams had to fight to stay inside the bubble.

• Historically, North America East has been one of the most competitive Semifinals in the world (and before that, in Regionals as well).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Morning Chalk Up (@morningchalkup)

[Related: Best Weightlifting Belts]

Besides the long-reigning CrossFit Mayhem, we’ve seen several top teams come out of the eastern U.S. and Canada, including CrossFit New England (2011 CrossFit Games champions), CrossFit Milford (second in 2015), 12 Labours CrossFit (second in 2016), and many more.

This year was no different, with a tight point spread throughout the weekend. As the teams took the floor for the final event, just three points separated TTT CrossFit Endure in ninth place from CrossFit Somos Mayhem in eighth, with eight total invitations available.

• Even after TTT CrossFit Endure crossed the finish line on the final event, their chances of sneaking to the Games looked slim, as they finished the final event in 12 minutes, only good enough for ninth place overall.
• However, in a massive upset, CrossFit Somos Mayhem struggled during the last event, finishing 19th. This allowed 10 teams to finish between them and TTT CrossFit Endure, giving them the path to the Games ticket.
• Unfortunately, CrossFit Somos Mayhem fell below the cut and failed to qualify for the Games.

Worth Noting: Josh Mattes is back. Last year, hours before the kickoff of the 2023 CrossFit Games, tragedy struck CrossFit Believe.

• In a freak accident during a pre-competition training session in Madison, Josh Mattes fell handstand walking and injured his face, requiring multiple surgeries.
• In an interview following his injury last year, Mattes told Morning Chalk Up, “My goal would be to be on a high-level team and make it back to the Games once I get all healed up.” 

This season, he made good on that goal, joining Ocean State CrossFit Surge, alongside Kristine Best, Christine Middleton, and Ethan Helbig.

The team placed sixth this weekend, punching their ticket to the Games and giving 2023’s fittest man in Missouri another shot at proving himself on the big stage.

Featured image: Carlos Fleury