Bonded through competition

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/05/2022 (1386 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bailee Ploshynsky and Brooke Hucalak are a match made in what few would consider “heaven.”

The gruelling CrossFit workouts they bonded through feel a lot more hell.

They’re both physically intimidating and mentally invincible. They are teammates most can only dream about and nightmares to go up against.

While they hadn’t competed in a CrossFit event together before, they entered “the comp 2022” — which calls itself “Winnipeg’s largest functional fitness competition,” with the goal of not finishing last.

Mission accomplished: They won.

And that was in the Rx (open) division, where exercises aren’t scaled or handicapped in any way.

“Truly our goal was to not get last. We had no idea what we were up against so the fact we put Brandon on the map and three people from the same gym won it was pretty cool,” Hucalak said of her team and Curt McGorman, who won the men’s Rx division with Quinn LeBlanc.

“Everyone knows it’s more motivating when you have a friend at any level, never mind this level when it just hurts sometimes to do the workouts we do. It’s the last thing we want to do just like anyone who doesn’t want to go to the gym after work.

“If you can have a buddy that holds you accountable and have the support, you can do a lot of stuff.”

SIMILAR PATHS BOUND TO CROSS

Ploshynsky made the most of an injury-riddled career in team sports. Growing up in Rossburn, she played hockey before multiple concussions prompted her to hang up her skates. She shifted to volleyball and soccer in Grade 11, immediately becoming a star striker and landing with the University of Manitoba Bisons in 2012.

Unfortunately, she suffered two more concussions in her rookie year, redshirted the following year but ultimately realized she wouldn’t be able to play if she couldn’t head the ball.

Ploshynsky wound up in Brandon in 2014 when the Bobcats were starting up their Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference soccer program. Then head coach Rainer Schira wanted her to play and had no issues with her one condition.

“I was like ‘I can’t use my head,’ and he was like ‘That’s fine,’” said Ploshynsky, who became the program’s first captain.

She led the team in scoring, was named team MVP and cracked the MCAC all-conference team. She tore her right hip flexor the following year, then tied forward Jaycee Castle with eight goals as the Bobcats captured the 2016 league title. BU went back-to-back the following year, Ploshynsky’s last in blue and gold.

CrossFit quickly filled her competitive void.

“It just gives you a purpose,” Ploshynsky said. “You’re using your body and I’ll always be competitive, I always want to see what I can do next and as cliché as it sounds, you talk about feeling fulfilled and I think when you’re seeing what your body’s capable of, you work out really hard, you push yourself, then what’s the point if I’m not eating well? It gives you purpose behind your eating, behind your sleep, behind your training.

“For me, it just touches on every part of what I want to be challenged in myself in order to feel like I’m not staying stagnant.”

Hucalak was a high school volleyball star at Elton Collegiate and landed with the Bobcats in 2012. She played one U Sports season and decided university wasn’t for her. She travelled for a year and eventually wound up in the police studies program at Assiniboine Community College in 2015.

The Forrest native led the Cougars to a 12-8 record and playoff berth in 2016, receiving MCAC MVP honours before bowing out in the semifinals.

Now she’s a patrol constable with Brandon Police Service.

It took about a year of coaxing from a friend to join CrossFit Rocked — now Rocked Community Fitness — but was love at first set.

“I fell in love with it instantly because you compete with the people around you,” Hucalak said. “It’s an incredibly supportive community and motivating but at the same time there are these incredible athletes that are so skilled so it motivates you to work on your own skills.”

They both ended up in CrossFit around the same time and found themselves in the same classes.

That motivated Hucalak, to say the least.

“She’s got this edge to her that is unmatched,” Hucalak said. “She’s got this competitive nature, this work ethic that’s incredible. She’s just always hungry to be better, which is very similar to what I’m like and she’s got this grit I really relate to. The work isn’t done until your goals are achieved.

“On the flip side, she’s such a genuinely sweet, loyal person that would give anyone the shirt off her back and has everyone’s best interests in mind.”

Ploshynsky competed in a partner event early on but quit CrossFit altogether a few years ago. It didn’t work with her schedule, which included wildfire-fighting out west during summers and a long trip to Australia before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

When she returned to Rossburn, she used a makeshift garage gym.

Then last year she was in search of a 24/7 gym and found Circle B Fitness, and once again, Hucalak. Ploshynsky teaches in Rivers now and still sees Hucalak’s name all over the Rolling River School Division’s track and field record book. And she certainly hasn’t lost the competitive edge.

“She’s just a warrior … When we competed against each other, I actually hated it,” Ploshynsky said. “I know how sick I’m going to feel after because I love her but there’s no way I’m going to lose to her and she feels the exact same way. I’ve always chased Brooke.

“… She’s gritty, she’s positive, she’s honest, she’s very supportive, she’s my best friend.”

They signed up for the competition months ago but it was postponed to May. That might have helped with the extra months to prepare.

SIX GRUELLING EVENTS

The competition consisted of some exercises performed together, some alternating and others done one at a time, split up however the team chooses.

It started on the Friday night, with alternating wall walks — climbing up a wall from a prone position into a handstand and back down — and deadlifts of 185 pounds. Hucalak and Ploshynsky alternated wall walks for nine reps, then split 21 deadlifts just about evenly. They went back to the wall for seven, 15 deadlifts, five wall walks and nine deadlifts to finish. That took about 2:30, good for third place and 80 points — first place gets 100.

Saturday started an 800-metre run holding a short rope to stay together, 200 double-unders with a jump rope and 25 squats holding a 100-pound sandbag. Repeat.

They swapped out every 50 jumps and finished third, five seconds back of the lead and just a second out of second.

Next, each athlete had to complete three rounds of two exercises before tagging in their partner. Hucalak did 10 snatches at 65 pounds and 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups, which resemble a butterfly swimming motion. Ploshynsky took the low-rep, high-weight sets, doing five snatches at 115 pounds and five muscle-ups.

“She’s got this incredible brute strength she’s always had,” Hucalak said. “Her deadlift and clean weights, they’re just incredible. She works on it but it’s a natural strength. I really tried to work on my strength as well as both of our gymnastics, which we worked really hard on.”

Once again, they finished third.

The last event of the day was their best and they knew it. One partner had to hit four kilometres on a bike while the other rowed two kilometres as fast as possible with a max of 10 minutes. After that, it was three minutes for as many 155-pound cleans as possible, which they alternated one at a time and won the event.

“That was our meat and potatoes,” Ploshynsky said.

“This was our bread and butter,” Hucalak added coincidentally in a separate interview. “That was kind of the turning point. The really tough, gritty grunt-work workouts are our thing.

“After that night we were sitting in first. We were jumping up and down in our hotel room.”

While you can get tired just reading that, they were only two-thirds of the way through.

Sunday morning kicked off with a pyramid that starts and finishes with 50 toes-to-bar reps — essentially performing a pike while hanging from a bar — while the other partner holds the 100-pound sandbag. The second and fourth part is 25 synchronized box jumps, with 100 wall balls in the middle — squatting to launch a 14-pound ball at least nine feet high against a wall.

They placed second to enter the finale tied for the lead.

The last event was an all-out sprint. One person had to row eight calories, perform eight burpees including jumps over the rowing machine and four cleans of the 100-pound sandbag. They had to alternate and finish four rounds each.

Ploshynsky finished first. She knew how hard her teammate was battling and all she had left to do was cheer along with a loud crowd.

“That last event you were just fighting that discomfort. You were in it and couldn’t let it overtake and make you stop,” Ploshynsky said. “… I knew she was going to deliver. I had zero question.”

It was neck-and-neck for the win until the final round when Hucalak pulled away to finish in 7:45 and win by 10 seconds.

“As disgusting as I felt and wanted to throw up, wanted to pass out, I was just so hungry for it. There was no chance, no thought in my mind that says ‘You have to slow down.’ My mind was ‘Do not quit, you cannot quit,’” Hucalak said.

“… The music was loud, the host on the microphone, it was deafening in there. We got to the mat and Bailee and I just hugged, I was screaming … it still gives me goosebumps.”

MOVING FORWARD

They took the next few weeks off but plan to enter more events, potentially both individually and as teammates. Hucalak took part in an online CrossFit Games competition a couple of weeks earlier, placing second in Canada and 10th in the world in the female law enforcement category (452nd in Canada and 8,655th overall).

The days immediately after aren’t easy though. Ploshynsky was a little sluggish at school the next day. Even just getting out of bed was a challenge but she calls it a “rewarding kind of pain.”

She doesn’t just train for those fleeting moments of victory but embraces the growth that comes from discomfort. It’s a mindset she aims to instil in her students.

In a world that craves comfort, it’s not the only way Ploshynsky works to break the status quo.

“We just want to show how much fun it is to be strong,” Ploshynsky said. “With younger girls as a teacher, that’s the message I hope I’m portraying and I know for sure that’s what Brooke wants to show too, what your body can do, not just what it is.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @thomasmfriesen