Why Team Outcast’s Gymreapers WZA SoCal Win Was Extra Impressive

Last weekend, the 2026 Gymreapers Wodapalooza SoCal took place in Huntington Beach, CA, featuring the first-ever “Battle of the Camps,” an exhibition-style competition showcasing some of the world's fittest CrossFit athletes.

Remind Me

Four teams — Team Brute, Team PRVN, Team Training Think Tank, and Team Outcast — competed in 11 fitness tests over three days.

In the end, Team Outcast, featuring eight athletes not affiliated with a specific training camp — Arielle Loewen, Danielle Brandon, Abbie Domit, Jack Farlow, Tudor Magda, and Bill Leahy — took the overall win and earned $120,000 in prize money.

• Second went to PRVN: Olivia Kerstetter, Maddie Sturt, Kyra Milligan, Ricky Garard, Jay Crouch, and Colten Mertens.

• Training Think Tank was third: Anikha Greer, Lydia Fish, Hannah Black, Noah Olsen, Travis Mayer, and Chandler Smith. 

• And Brute was fourth: Emma Lawson, Janie Cheverie, Aline Wirz, James Sprague, Dallin Pepper, and Jayson Hopper.

Worth noting: Originally, Justin Medeiros and Ellie Turner were slated to compete on Team Outcast, but they were replaced just a couple of days before the competition by Domit and Farlow after Medeiros suffered a serious injury, including a broken jaw and concussion, when he was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle.

One Big Thing

What makes Team Outcast’s win particularly impressive, arguably surprising, is that, on paper at least, they were arguably the fourth-ranked team. At least this is true when we consider the following:

• Number of CrossFit Games appearances among team members.

• Number of CrossFit podium finishes among team members.

• Number of CrossFit Games champions on the team.

Team Outcast

• CrossFit Games appearances: 23

• Podium finishes: 1

• CrossFit Games champions: 0

Team PRVN

• CrossFit Games appearances: 27

• Podium finishes: 4

• CrossFit Games champions: 0

Team Training Think Tank

• CrossFit Games appearances: 27

• Podium finishes: 1

• CrossFit Games champions: 0

Team Brute

• CrossFit Games appearances: 21

• Podium finishes: 8

• CrossFit Games champions: 3

Overall, Team Outcast ranked last in every category except Games appearances, where they were third with 23 appearances, while Brute was fourth with 21. That said, Brute also had the most CrossFit Games podium finishes among their team, with eight, and they were the only team with any CrossFit Games champions (Sprague with two and Hopper with one).

One Last Thing

Not only did their accolades rank them fourth out of the four teams last weekend, but a second major issue for Team Outcast at “Battle of the Camps” was that they don’t train together. (The members of the other three teams don’t necessarily train together full-time each week; at the very least, they get together before big competitions like the CrossFit Games.)

• The PRVN team, for example, trained together every day for four weeks leading up to the recent Games in San Jose, CA, and is clearly tight-knit, knowing each other on and off the competition floor. 

All this is to say that you might assume the other teams had more chemistry than Team Outcast last weekend. 

Despite everything stacked against them, Team Outcast came together last weekend and pulled off the unlikely victory, proving once again that, in sports, anything can happen on game day.