Results After Day 1 Team Big Cat Challenge

Yesterday, the Tigers started the team portion of the Big Cat Challenge with the Plate Carry event.  Each member of each team carried two 45 lb. plates 90 yds and back in a relay style race.  The run required speed and also a great amount of grip strength as the players were not allowed to grip the weights by their handles.  Instead they were only allowed to carry them by the grooved edges which provided quite the challenge for many.

"The Gangstas of Love" led by team captain Kevin Jackson won the event in an impressive time of 3:45 with no penalties.  The team got off to a rough start but Jackson was able to put together a dominant run to put his team right back in the mix of things and each member of the team then followed up with solid runs to claim the win.

Although Jackson's team made the event look easy, several players struggled with the grip strength portion of the race costing their teams valuable seconds.  However, every team has the opportunity to gain ground on Jackson's "Gangstas of Love" in every event leading up to the Obstacle Course.

Here are the results after the first completed event:

Team Jackson "Gangstas of Love" - 3:45
Team Pappas "Team Sanchez" - 4:19
Team Klimesh "Green Death" - 4:20
Team Binder "Jaws" - 5:15
Team Lawson: 7:03
Team Keiser: 7:48

As you can see, the "Gangsta's of Love" have a commanding lead after Day 1, but every team is still in the hunt and will be scratching and clawing to close the gap in the following events.

Click here to see footage from yesterday's Plate Carry event.

Teams set for Big Cat Challenge

This evening, after today's practice, the Tigers will kick off the Big Cat Team Competition.  Last night, captains Nick Pappas, Kevin Jackson, Will Keiser, Eric Binder, Ben Klimesh and Andrew Lawson met with the coaching staff and held a draft.  This group of competitors finished top 6 in the individual Big Cat competition, minus Dom Robusto of course who decided not to compete in the team events and allowing himself to recover from a hamstring tweak.

Each of the first 5 events will all be timed and accumulated before the final Obstacle Course Event.  The cumulative timee in these events will decide where each team starts on the final day.  For example, if team A compiles a total time in the first 5 events of 20 minutes and team B's total time if 21 minutes, team A have a 1 minute head start in the obstacle course and team B will have to make that time up over the course of the event and finish before team A.

Today's event is the Plate Carry Relay.  In this competition, players will be required to carry a 45 lb. plate in each hand and sprint up and back the turf intramural practice field in a relay style until each member of the team has completed the run.

Here are the results of last nights draft:

Pappas             Jackson       Keiser         Binder      Klimesh       Lawson
Paillet               Lucero         Warren       Murphy    Bentz           Frasier
Barron             Hunter          Donnan       Felix         Ryan            Bay
Rockafellow    Hall              Calbick        Jones        Fink             Webb
Heckerl            Haaf             Woodruff    Spriggs     Stanton       Knowlton
Bogese             Panozzo       Clements    Francke   Grimshaw   Burden

Videos from the Final Individual Big Cat Event - The WOD

Sophomore Tim Stanton with a Strong Finish to the Workout
Senior Evan Jones goes up against Freshman Andrew Webb
Freshman Jon Hall Finishes up his Last Set of Cleans
Marquee Matchup Between High School Teammates Will Donnan and Michael Bentz
Sophomore Ben Klimesh Prepares Himself for the WOD
Klimesh and Junior Will Keiser Showing How to Compete
Keiser Completes the Workout for 3rd Place in the Event
Senior Eric Binder and Sophomore Nick Pappas Dominating the Workout
Sophomore Dom Robusto's Championship Clinching Heat and Junior Kevin Jackson's Great Effort

Big Cat Team Events Announced

This year's Big Cat team events are:
- Plate Carry Relay
- Bag Pull Relay
- Swim Relay
- Tug-of-War
- Tire Flips
- Obstacle Course

Big Cat Individual Final Standings

The final day of the Big Cat Individual Challenge was one that gave players a chance to decide their own fate in the final standings.  Players were grouped based on their position on the leaderboard.  The top 10 competitors going into the event performed the workout in pairs with an opportunity to leapfrog their opponent in the final rankings.

Going into the event, sophomore Dom Robusto was holding on to first place by 5 points over both sophomore Nick Pappas and junior Kevin Jackson.  However, on the off day before the final event, Robusto tweaked his hamstring while running a sprint in practice so he was questionable going into the event.

The drama ensued as last year's individual champion Will Keiser posted the best time in the event giving him a legitimate chance to repeat if the top 3 were to slip up in the WOD.  Pappas then ended the chance of the first repeat champion in recorded Big Cat history* by overtaking Keiser's top time by several seconds, putting him in a great position to be the new Big Cat champion.

All this time, Robusto was still a question mark and finally was allowed to compete in the event, but only  under the close watch of strength and conditioning coach Nick Vera to be sure that his form was not impaired by his hamstring injury.  If Vera were to see any break in form, Robusto would be shut down for the event and take a DNF, eliminating his chances to claim the crown.

So in the final heat of the WOD, Robusto and Jackson went head to head to decide this year's champion with Pappas watching closely to see if his time would hold up and give him the win.  The two athlete's put on an incredible display of strength and athleticism, Robusto actually performed almost every burpee on one leg to avoid re-injuring his hamstring.  The heat was neck and neck nearly the entire workout, but it was Robusto who not only won the matchup, but also finished with the top time overcoming his handicap of competing mostly on one leg.

The overall effort of every competitor throughout the competition was astounding.  We now look forward to this week's beginning of the Team Big Cat Challenge.  The top 6 finishers were awarded with the opportunity to be captain's for the team challenge, however, Robusto chose not to participate in the team challenge to give his hamstring an opportunity to heal and allowed senior Andrew Lawson the chance to be a captain since he was the next highest seeded finisher.  Later tonight, the team events will be posted so captains will have the opportunity set up for the draft.

Here are the final standing from the Individual Big Cat Challenge:

Name	Total
Robusto	34
Pappas	40
Jackson	46
Keiser	50
Binder	53
Klimesh	59
Lawson	71
Paillet	75
Donnan	81
Murphy	84
Hunter	86
Bay	89
Bentz	90
Woodruff	92
Spriggs	94
Knowlton	96
Barron	97
Ryan	99
Haaf	99
Hall	104
Rockafellow	111
Panozzo	113
Lucero	124
Fink	131
Felix	136
Bogese	139
Grimshaw	143
Heckerl	145
Jones	145
Webb	148
Warren	151
Clements	162
Frasier	163
Calbick	168
Burden	187
Stanton	188
Foster	193
Francke	194
Robertson	206

Individual Big Cat Challenge Day 6 - The WOD

After a day off yesterday to give the players a chance to rest and recover after 5 events in 5 days, the Tigers concluded the individual portion of the Big Cat Challenge today with the WOD event.

The Tigers have been doing workouts this season that are constantly varied and very intense.  The players are assigned a WOD (Workout of the Day) each day that consists of functional movements such as squats, deadlifts, cleans, pushups and pullups done over a certain period of time or for a prescribed set of repetitions.  This style of training instills a competitive atmosphere in the weight room and is an extremely efficient and effective.

Players were unaware of the design of the WOD until moments before they entered the weight room to start the final event.  Rumors were spread amongst players that the workout would be a max pullup/pushup contest or a max bodyweight back squat in 1 minute.  The WOD was posted just after today's practice and it read:

3 Rounds of:
5 Cleans @ 135 lbs
7 Burpees
9 KB Swings (24 kg)

Although the workout was short, 2 to 4 minutes for most players, it was also grueling, leaving players lying on the ground gasping for air several minutes after completing the WOD.  The times are currently being entered into the Big Cat spreadsheet to see where players ended up after the final event.  Check back tomorrow to see the results of the WOD along with video and also the final standings of the individual competition.

Big Cat Day 5 - Hill Sprint

Friday's event tested not only the player's ability to sprint uphill, but also their ability to deal with surrounding elements.  First, the event was complicated by the fact that they not only had to sprint approximately 150 meters uphill, but they were also weighed down by a 50+ pound sandbag.  On top of that, they had to deal with the rain and a cool night in San Antonio.

Unlike the previous events where players stuck around to view the results of others in a particular event, after completing the Hill Sprint, players were happy to head back to the locker room to get out of the rain and the cold.  Fortunately, many of them were provided a shuttle back down the hill after running the spring to regain leg strength and catch their breathe after a tough all out sprint.

Sophomore utility man Dom Robusto claimed the victory in the event with a stellar time of 26.49 seconds.  With the win and the separation he created between his competitors, Robusto overtook the overall lead in the individual Big Cat competition.  Former chart topper Kevin Jackson put together a solid time at 28.92 seconds up the hill, but enough players came between him and Robusto to see Jackson lose claim of the lead.

Here were the results of Friday's Hill Sprint Event:

Name	Time		Points
Robusto	26.49		1
Binder	27.29		2
Pappas	27.54		3
Lawson	27.93		4
Fink	28.11		5
Paillet	28.3		6
Barron	28.53		7
Keiser	28.71		8
Klimesh	28.88		9
Jackson	28.92		10
Ryan	28.92		10
Donnan	29.03		12
Bentz	29.12		13
Knowlton	29.31		14
Rockafellow	29.5		15
Lucero	29.98		16
Hall	30.41		17
Bay	30.62		18
Bogese	31.23		19
Hunter	31.23		19
Panozzo	31.37		21
Woodruff	31.42		22
Clements	31.44		23
Haaf	31.51		24
Murphy	31.94		25
Webb	32.02		26
Spriggs	32.36		27
Grimshaw	32.85		28
Foster	32.96		29
Stanton	34.33		30
Heckerl	34.43		31
Frasier	35.81		32
Calbick	35.95		33
Jones	36.42		34
Burden	37.85		35
Francke			36
Warren			36
Felix			36