Celebrating our brightest stars

A Wodapolooza Recap by Coach Kate

Two weekends ago, Lillie Lodwick, Brandy Colomer, and I (Kate Samuelson) competed at Wodapalooza SoCal in the Women’s Intermediate Team division—and wow, what a weekend!

We signed up with almost no preparation but had an absolute blast. After competing at the NorCal Classic in June, I caught the competition bug again. WZA SoCal was the next event, and the only open spot was in the Intermediate Women’s Team of Three. Once Brandy and Lillie said yes, we were in!

Two weeks later, I moved to Fresno, which meant we only had one practice day before the three-day competition. With my competition background, I took the lead on strategy while we leaned into each other’s strengths.

Day 1

We started with our best finish of the weekend—15th place! The workout had rowing, wall walks, wall balls, and synchronized bar muscle-ups. We stuck to our plan, nearly beat the time cap, and walked away proud.

Next was the snatch ladder. Each of us had two minutes to hit a max lift before taking on 90 snatches at 95lbs. I hit 125, while Lillie and Brandy both hit 100. For the 90 reps, I chipped away in small sets while they rotated quick singles. Since 95lbs was right under their max, watching them push through was incredible.

Day 2

The first workout was a 15-minute AMRAP with box jumps, synchronized devil’s presses, and a new twist—shooting targets with the erg gun. Lillie went five-for-five, Brandy was steady, and even though I struggled, my teammates carried us through.

Then came the Beach Tri: 50 syncro toes-to-bar, three rounds of biking and beach running, and another 50 toes-to-bar. The bars were slick from condensation, and Lillie’s hands were torn up from Day 1, so Brandy and I handled most of the toes-to-bar. It wasn’t pretty, but we got it done!

Day 3 (Last Day, Best Day!)

We went into the last day in 25th place, hoping to move up.

The first event was a burpee-over-log and sandbag relay. Each of us sprinted, hit burpees in the sand, and carried a sandbag. I grabbed the 100, while Brandy and Lillie switched between the 70 and 50. We beat the time cap by three seconds—a huge win!

The final workout was our favorite. It started with 16 rope climbs—something that had haunted me since the NorCal Classic. This time, we crushed them and were one of the first teams off the ropes. Then came syncro clean & jerks, heavy rope double-unders, and syncro thrusters. Our strategy worked perfectly, and we finished under the cap, crossing the line together.

Final Results

We climbed three spots on the last day to finish 22nd overall. But the real highlight wasn’t the placement—it was how we supported each other, adapted when things got tough, and had fun from start to finish.

WZA SoCal was a weekend we’ll never forget!