A second successive year at the NOBULL CrossFit Games in Madison, Wisconsin, led to a much improved finish for Powell High School grad Cooper Wise and his team CrossFit Omnia Black, which placed seventh overall.

Wise and his Denver crew earned their bid to the finals this year by finishing first at the Atlas Games in June — boosting the team’s confidence heading to NOBULL in August.

Last year, the team finished No. 16 overall in the finals, but came into this year with renewed confidence after an improved training schedule.

“Placing seventh felt really good, we had a lot more confidence going into it as a team this year,” Wise said. “We felt we deserved to be in the top 10 teams.”

He said last year the team had maybe three events that they went into the competition unprepared for, resulting in low placements that dropped the team’s overall score.

This year the team went in prepared for anything, helping the group boost their overall score after finishing between third and 13th in every individual competition.

“Our coach made sure that we trained in everything that would show up,” Wise said.

After the high finish, Wise knows it will be difficult to take that next leap and move even further into the top five or even earn a podium finish in the top three.

Wise and his team are what’s known as a true affiliate team, which is a result of all four athletes  living in the same town and attending the same gym.

Five of the teams ahead of Wise’s are groups of professional athletes who agree to move to the same town to compete together, making CrossFit Omnia Black the second highest placing true affiliate team at this year’s finals.

He said this year’s competition introduced one fun event for Wise, which consisted of trail biking for one pair of teammates while the other pair worked on another event in the field before switching.

The event Wise felt strongly about for his team was the final event with the “worm.” 

The worm is a long sand bag that weighs 380 pounds that the team must carry — it was the event he said helped solidify seventh place for the group.

Other events involved pushing up to a 1,200 pound sled as a team, and flipping a bag called a “pig” that weighs 550 pounds.

After the conclusion of this year’s event, Wise and his team took a week off to regroup and rest before hopping back into the gym for lighter CrossFit workouts.

“We are already talking about next year and how we want to improve,” Wise said. “We are going to try and get top five and maybe sneak onto the podium.”