2024 Rogue Invitational Day 2 Recap: Adler and Tia Top the Leaderboard

Day 2 of the 2024 Rogue Invitational was packed full of action at P&J Live in Aberdeen, Scotland. 

• Saturday is traditionally known as “moving day” due to the jostling that takes place on the leaderboard and that was certainly the case for many athletes at the Rogue Invitational. 

On the women’s side, it looked like Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr could run the table for the whole competition with another event win to start the day, building on her clean sweep on Day 1. 

• With that win, she tied Laura Horvath for the Rogue record with four event wins in a row. 

Gabi Migała entered the day just 25 points behind in second and 65 points ahead of third. But Horvath battled back, cutting into the lead with two event wins of her own to stop the G.O.A.T.’s streak and to close out the day in second, 55 points back. 

• Migała currently rounds out the top three with the two past champions, 105 points ahead of fourth place. She has looked strong and poised all weekend. Unfortunately, however, she suffered an injury in Event 6: “The Duel IV” and had to withdraw from the competition. 

Emma Tall was by far the biggest mover of the day, jumping from 15th place to fourth, with her finishes of seventh, fourth, and second.

For the men, the top three remained unchanged, but in second place, Ricky Garard cut 10 points off of Jeff Adler’s lead, which is now at 40. 

• Garard increased his lead over third-place Dallin Pepper from five to 30 points. 

Here’s how it all played out.

Event 4: Hunting Haggis

Or, as Sean Woodland called it: “Jackie’s evil monster cousin.” 

This was an event we were excited to watch. It included a Rogue signature, the log muscle-up, which proved to be a separator. 

The Women

Alex Gazan was one of the only women to link log muscle-ups, hitting sets of three to start. 

• She won the first heat and hung on to fourth place in the event. Her strong Day 2 has moved her into sixth place overall.  

The log muscle-up is a unique movement that athletes have difficulty replicating in training, and most have only done it in this competition. 

Toomey-Orr stayed steady with single reps on her way to her fourth event win in a row.

• “News flash: Tia Toomey is winded,” Sean Woodland said and joked that it was the first time we’d seen her appear tired. 

Horvath came in second, over a minute behind Toomey-Orr. Arielle Loewen showed great proficiency in the muscle-ups, propelling her to a third-place finish. Gazan, from heat one, and Maddie Sturt rounded out the top five. 

The Men

Jeffrey Adler was the first to the log, but Ricky Garard made it back to the thrusters ahead. It was reminiscent of Event 1 and looked like it would come down to a sprint to the finish line again. But Garard could not be caught. 

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• Dallin Pepper, however, snuck into second place ahead of Adler with a blistering pace on the final row. 

When asked what he liked about the event, Garard replied, “Nothing but the log muscle-ups.” 

Jay Crouch and Jonne Koski rounded out the top five. 

Event 5: Devils Tail

“Devil’s Tail” featured a nasty couplet of two time-consuming movements: rope climbs and Cyr Bell devil’s presses. 

The Women

This test of grip strength and upper-body pulling favored Laura Horvath and the Hungarian star delivered, ending Toomey-Orr’s event win streak at four. 

It was Horvath’s eighth career Rogue Invitational event win. 

• “This is what Europe is like. The CrossFit community in the States should watch this because we are coming,” Horvath said in her post-event interview.

“This workout has my name written all over it. So I just had to execute,” she concluded. She did just that. 

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Toomey-Orr finished 14 seconds behind in second place. 

Migała, who had one rope climb remaining at the final horn, placed third. Emma Tall continued her climb up the leaderboard with a fourth-place finish. Brooke Wells was the only other woman to complete the second set of devil’s presses, good for fifth in the event. Wells sits in eighth place after day two. 

The Men 

Jayson Hopper had a roller coaster day but called his shot on Event 5. 

He was tied with Dallin Pepper for third before a 19th-place finish in Event 4 dropped him to ninth overall. 

He followed it up with a convincing win in Event 5. He closed out the day in fifth place after a solid sixth-place finish in event six. 

• “I’ve been fuming in the back for the last two hours. I’m glad I wiped that clean,” Hopper said after the event.

When asked about the grip fatigue, “I don’t feel anything. My grip is elite,” Hopper responded with a smile. 

Adler, who remained in first overall, took second, just 2 seconds behind Hopper. Ricky Garard, Brent Fikowski, and Dallin Pepper rounded out the top, as these men have traded blows every event thus far in the competition. 

Worth noting: The first two events on Saturday featured a hefty number of athletes being time-capped.

• Only five women and six men were able to complete “Hunting Haggis.”
• Only two women and six men finished “Devil’s Tail.”

That means that, in Events 4 and 5, 82.5 percent of women and 70 percent of men were capped, compared to Day 1 when only 15 percent of women were capped and zero men. 

Event 6: The Duel IV

Our wish came true. The Rogue organizers brought back the fan-favorite, the tournament bracket-style event for the fourth time. 

• The event was announced only an hour before the athletes would take the floor, giving them very little time to prepare for a new challenge. 

Luckily, the CrossFitters got a chance to see the Strongmen and Srongwomen tackle the “Power Stairs” first. 

• We have seen versions of “The Duel” over the last three years make for some of the most exciting races, and the biggest hand grenades to the leaderboard. 

The Women

Last year, Horvath gained 50 points on Toomey-Orr in “The Duel III” and won the entire event by only 10 points. Horvath gained 35 points in, moving her into second and narrowing the gap to 55 points.

Dani Speegle, who won “The Duel III” last year, received a 10-second penalty that knocked her out in the first round. 

•  Gabi Migała suffered an injury in round three on the hay bale jumpovers. She is feared to have ruptured her Achilles tendon. 

Horvath and Emma Tall improved their times each round, making it through to the finals. Horvath ran a flawless race to beat Tall for her second straight win.  

Danielle Brandon used her speed on the hay bale jump-overs to finish third, her best event so far. Dana Paran and Paige Semenza rounded out the top five. 

Toomey-Orr bowed out in the quarterfinal round and finished in eighth place. Elimination-style events have seemingly been the only thing to slow her down in the last few years. 

• “The mentality is show up and run them down,” Horvath said in her post-event interview. 

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The Men

After Henrik Hapalainen was the second athlete to be injured on the hay bale jumpovers in the same way, the organizers changed the event to include burpees, which would put less force on the strongest tendon in the body – the Achilles. 

Gui Malheiros used his explosiveness to propel himself to victory, bouncing off the ground with tremendous speed. He edged out Brent Fikowski in the final to claim the win. 

• This was Gui’s second victory in “The Duel” series, having won the first version back in 2021. 

Both of the finalists were interviewed after the event. When asked what his favorite Rogue Invitational memory has been, Fikowski responded, “That was up there. But I’m going to make better ones tomorrow.”

The Big Picture

Going into the final day in Scotland, we have our eyes trained on a few athletes. 

Jeffrey Adler is the only individual to be on the podium each of the last three years (third, third, second), and he looks determined to stand on top for the first time. But it is far from over with 300 points up for grabs tomorrow. 

Brent Fikowski, making his final competition appearance, sits in fourth place, just 10 points behind Pepper for the final podium spot. In his last eight competitions, including The CrossFit Games and last year’s Rogue Invitational, the 33-year-old Fikowski has finished fourth place or better – an absolutely incredible run for “The Professor.” 

• He’s looking to make moves on his final day as a professional CrossFit athlete. 

Tia is going to be tough to catch, but if anyone can do it, it’s Laura Horvath. After two event wins in a row for Horvath, Kiki Dickson asked the defending Rogue champ, “How hungry are you?” 

• Horvath responded, “You’ll see.”

More CrossFit Coverage

• Our 2024 Rogue Invitational Women’s Podium Picks and Dark Horses
• Our 2024 Rogue Invitational Men’s Podium Picks and Dark Horses
• Celebrating the 2024 Rogue Invitational Legends Roster

Featured image: Seb Vallejo, @vallejo_media_ / Instagram

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