Crossfit Open 14.1 - Garret Fisher vs. Marcus Hendren

When HQ first announced that the live throw down for 14.1 would be between Garret Fisher and Marcus Hendren, I was a bit underwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong, both of these guys are extremely upper echelon Crossfitters. They boast Games experience and they’re both young enough for us to assume that they’re best days are ahead of them. While Rich Froning deserves to be the favorite until he decides to stop competing, both Hendren and Fisher are very serious competitors for the crown and/or a podium finish. Did I say I was underwhelmed? What the heck was I thinking?!? Crossfit only started these live throwdowns last year but I think this one is the second best matchup on the men’s side that we’ve seen, second only to Froning vs Khalipa. Let’s take a look at how these two young guns stack up:

Measurables:
Garret Fisher is 22 years old and reports himself as 6’1, 210 pounds.
Marcus Hendren is 25 years old and reports himself as 5’10, 198 pounds.
My only thought on this is that I was surprised Fisher outweighed Hendren. Fisher looks like the leaner athlete but I guess that’s what an extra three inches does for you. There’s obviously a three year age difference as well.
Experience
Garret Fisher, as best I can tell, started competing in CF in 2012 when he finished 29th in Northern California in the Open (285th overall) and finished up a very respectable 7th at Regionals. That didn’t earn him a spot in the Games but the then 20 year old proved he would be back. Last year Fisher cemented his spot as a Northern Cali beast, taking 4th in the Open (50th overall) and nailing down third place in a very tough region to earn a trip to the Games. He beat out solid Games veterans like Pat Barber and Gabe Subry. His first trip to the Games wouldn’t be a disappoint either as narrowly edged out Hendren for 5th place, including top 5 finishes in Row1 and the Burden Run. Fisher was solid and consistent throughout the Games, getting off to a solid start with top 10 finishes in each of the first four WODs and ended the weekend with three more top 10 finishes.
Marcus Hendren, again as best I can tell, also started competing in CF in 2012 when finished 11th in the Central East in the Open (141st overall) and followed that up in a 4th place finish at Regionals (behind two Games Champs Froning and Holmberg). His first trip to the Games culminated in a solid 7th place finish that included two top three finishes. Last year Hendren had an eventful ride to the Games, finishing 3rd in the region (42 overall) in the Open, but then having to make a mad dash on the final day of Regionals to earn his return trip to the Games. In the first four events at regionals, he placed 9th or worse in three of them, but in the final three WODs he notched two wins and fifth to squeeze out Nick Fory by a single point for 5th place (again behind two former champs). At the Games, Hendren again got off to a slow start finishing 37th, 10th and 24th in the first three workouts. Once he got going though, Hendren put on a show finishing inside the top 10 on six of the nine remaining WODs.

Head to Head
Obviously since both these guys were at the Games last year, we’ve got some data to compare since they were doing these exact same WODs in the same conditions. In the 12 scored events from last year, Fisher holds the head to head advantage by finishing ahead of Hendren in six of the events. Hendren can boast four victories and they actually tied in two events. Fisher had six top 10 finishes and two top five finishes while Hendren had seven top 10 finishes, but only one top five, although that was first place overall finish in the Zig Zag sprint.
When you go back and look at Regionals, Hendren really dominated Fisher although the times out of the Central East were incredible across the board out of that region last year for whatever reason. Hendren posted better times/lifts on six of the seven events when compared to Fisher, although Fisher was in the top 5 in all but one event, whereas Hendren only posted three top five finishes. If you go back even further, Hendren posted better numbers on three of the five Open WODs from last year.
So is there a conclusion somewhere in here?
The honest answer is I don’t know. Fisher and Hendren are both amazing CF athletes, they’re both going to post awesome numbers and most likely be back at the Games in 2014. As to who will win this throwdown, I think the data says it should be Hendren. Hendren performed better in the Open and Regionals phase last year and his worst events at the Games were ‘unconventional’ CF WODs (37th place in the pool and 24th in the marathon row). This WOD should be very basic and conventional. I think the only reason I want to pick Fisher is because he’s more visible during the offseason. He works out with Jason Khalipa and my personal favorite Miranda Oldroyd (aka Shoulder Meat) at the NC Lab so I can at least see some of what he’s doing and who he’s working out with on a daily basis. I know he’s getting pushed and getting better. So now that I think about it, on the off chance that Miranda stumbles across this lowly blog, I have to pick her guy (call me Miranda, let’s talk :-) ).
Garret Fisher will win the live throw down at 14.1!!
You can of course watch it all live on the Crossfit Games site Thursday, February 27th. Be there and be ready…..(seriously Miranda, call me!)