Victor Hoffer wins Mayhem Classic tiebreaker, tops first Games qualifier
Victor Hoffer beat Roman Khrennikov on a tiebreaker after both scored 525. Paige Rodgers backed up a steady weekend to claim one of three women’s Games spots.
Victor Hoffer and Roman Khrennikov finished dead even at the top of the men’s leaderboard with 525 points apiece, but Hoffer won the Mayhem Classic on the tiebreaker because he logged two third-place finishes to Khrennikov’s one. That razor-thin edge sent Hoffer to the 2026 CrossFit Games in San Jose, California, and left Jeffrey Adler just five points back in third at 520, a margin that showed how little room there was for error in Cookeville.
The Mayhem Classic was the first in-person Semifinals event of the CrossFit Games season, and the format made every rep count. Held April 17-19 at CrossFit Mayhem in Cookeville, Tennessee, the competition drew 20 men and 20 women and handed out three Games invitations to each division after six workouts spread across three days. The test mixed running, burpees, clean and jerks, muscle-ups, ski work, GHD sit-ups, rope climbs, handstand walking, front squats, double unders, dumbbell work and farmers lunge variations, which is why the leaderboard rewarded complete athletes instead of specialists.
Paige Rodgers separated herself on the women’s side by finishing in the top three in five of six events. She stumbled early, but the weekend turned in her favor as the workouts piled up, and she secured her third individual trip to the Games. Rodgers had already been there in 2023 and 2022, and her athlete profile shows a sixth-place finish at the 2023 North America East Semifinal and a second-place finish at the 2022 CrossFit Atlas Games. Emma Lawson and Lucy Campbell joined her in the qualifying trio, while Rodgers’ run restored her place on the sport’s biggest stage after she did not compete in 2025.
The depth of the field made the result more telling. CrossFit Mayhem’s affiliate listing places the gym at 601 Rich Froning Way and links Rodgers, Khrennikov, Austin Hatfield and Haley Adams to its 2026 Semifinals roster, underscoring how central the Cookeville affiliate remains to this part of the season. CrossFit’s coverage framed the event as a Semifinal showdown hosted by Rich Froning and the Mayhem Athlete team, and the weekend delivered exactly that: Hoffer, Khrennikov, Adler, Rodgers, Lawson and Campbell all moved onto the Games watchlist with direct, measurable proof that one missed rep or one lower finish can decide a season.
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