By PETE SCHLEHR, SID Emeritus
COLUMBIA, Md. - CrossFit isn't old enough to have much of a history but millions of athletes worldwide are flocking to over 13,000 gyms to determine if they're up to the challenges the sport offers.

In the thick of this hysteria are former Tigers Gary Helmick (baseball) and Alea Murphy (track), now husband and wife, who are not only competitors on an international scale but owners of CrossFit ReVamped in Columbia, one of 7,400 boxes operating in the United States. Their gym opened its doors in 2012 to a clientele eager to participate in what Forbes Magazine has hailed as the fastest growing sport in America.

Gary and Alea recently returned from Carson, Calif., where they competed in the 2016 CrossFit Games, the sport's version of the Olympics held as the premier test to find the "Fittest on Earth." The two former Tigers became the first married couple ever to qualify for the individual competition as the Games celebrated a 10^th anniversary. 

The Helmicks made their way through the Open competition, the initial qualifying round where thousands of athletes from around the world vied for 40 spots in each regional. Gary and Alea both then finished among the top five in the Atlantic regional to join the final group of 40 men and 40 women who competed for the world titles.

After five grueling days, Alea finished in 26^th place. Gary was 27^th. Both were ecstatic about their performances.

"For all this to happen the way it did – to get fifth place at the regional – make it as a couple, experience this whole thing together in the 10^th year anniversary of the Games, it's just really hard to put into words," says Alea. "It's still soaking in."

The path the Helmicks had to take to make it to the Games proved to be more physically difficult than any other athletic challenge they had ever encountered in track or baseball.

"I've been an athlete my whole life and have trained for high school, collegiate and even professional sports," says Gary. "None of those training regimens compare to what CrossFit has done for me physically and mentally."

An All-American and first team All Colonial Athletic Association shortstop, Gary was signed by the Baltimore Orioles as a non-drafted free agent in 2009, right after being named Towson's Athlete of the Year. Two years of knocking around in the minors, though, were enough to convince him he needed a career change.

"I went to spring training in 2011 but didn't see it going as planned so I decided to hang up the cleats," says Gary. "And, I was getting married to Alea in the fall. It was a tough life. I was not making much money and not moving up like I thought I should be so I had to make a decision."

That decision was a life-changer.

"The following September one of my family friends introduced me to CrossFit, told me I should try it out," Gary says. "I started doing it in my parent's basement because they had a little weight room I could use. I found it was super difficult. There were a lot of movements that were challenging for me. But it filled my competitive void since baseball was over for me."

It wasn't long before Gary was dedicating himself to Crossfit. He earned his Level One certificate which is required in order to train and coach others. Eventually he opened CrossFit ReVamped.

Alea, the Tigers's record-setting indoor and outdoor hurdler who was honored as Towson's Female Senior Career Achievement Award recipient in 2009, kept a watchful eye on Gary's CrossFit progress.

"I started training six months after Gary," Alea recalls. "I saw what he was doing in one of his workouts. I'm super competitive so I said, oh, I can do that. I tried but discovered it was really difficult. It pushed me to my limits so I was automatically hooked because I like a challenge. After that I went on to get my Level One. Initially I trained mainly for fun. But then I got serious."

A former Doc Minnegan Scholarship recipient who graduated from Towson with a degree in Elementary Education before earning a Master's in Administration and Supervision for Changing Populations at Notre Dame of Maryland, Alea had to balance her training with a full-time job as a fourth, fifth and sixth grade teacher at St. Agnes Catholic School in Catonsville.

Unlike the weekend warrior who might be satisfied with a few sit ups, a couple of curls and a pull up or two before a half-mile on the treadmill, CrossFit training is intense, arduous and time consuming, especially when preparing for competition.

"It's a mix of gymnastics, weightlifting and cardiovascular endurance," says Alea. "The 10 general physical skills of CrossFit test your strength, stamina, agility, balance and flexibility. The CrossFit Games try to determine the best person that exhibits all of those physical skills. There's a lot of barbell work, a lot of odd-object work, rope climbing, and a ton of running."

The Helmicks, college sweethearts who met on campus during the mandatory study hall that all Tiger freshmen student-athletes must attend ("I was studying, Gary was … studying, or trying to anyway") aren't quite sure about their immediate goals for competing next year at the same high level.

"If you ask me that question in about four or five months I might have a different answer," says Gary. "But we're reflecting on what happened, all the work we put in over the past year. I feel as though there has to be an off-season as there is in any sport. For a year we would wake up every morning and ask ourselves what can we do today to get better at CrossFit.

"We're focusing more right now on our gym. We're trying to get it to regionals and maybe to the CrossFit Games down the road. Six members of our gym would have to be at that elite level to qualify as a team so we're trying to get that put in place. I'm thinking now it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for us both to make it individually. It's not going to get any easier to make it again. But we'll always be competitive and engaged in some kind of competition."

Gary and Alea honed their work ethic at Towson where they both rose to the top in their respective sports, setting Tiger records and earning high marks in the CAA. Don't count them out just yet of returning to the 2017 CrossFit Games in some fashion.