Three Grant County women joined forces to win first place in their division at the Jan. 12 Granite Games CrossFit competition in Nampa, Idaho.

As the team “PVC Prodigies,” Rebekah Rand of Canyon City and Megan Sherman and Haley Olson, both of John Day, took the top spot on the podium at the Snake River CrossFit gym in the women’s scaled division, beating 18 other teams.

“It felt amazing to win, and teaming up with those two, we had really good teamwork,” Rand said. “Our strengths and weaknesses complement each other.”

Sherman, who owns the Canyon Creek Cross Training gym in John Day, which is not affiliated with CrossFit, said they discovered it was also a global event, and they placed 38th out of 527 teams.

The competition workouts included ring rows, jump rope, burpees and partner deadlift.

Sherman said the partner deadlift was the most challenging for their team due to their height differences. One partner takes one side of the bar, and the other is on the opposite side, dead lifting 205 pounds.

“I’m 5-foot-2, and Haley is 5-foot-10,” Sherman said. “We have to lock out at the same time. We had to be in sync.”

Olson said their team trained hard for the event for three months together.

“It was awesome being on a team with those guys,” she said.

Rand said it was a fun experience.

“We didn’t go expecting to win, but it was good to see where we stacked up against the other teams,” she said. “It felt good to come out on top.”

The three continue to train for future events.

Sherman is working toward having her gym USA Weightlifting certified, so athletes can train in her gym for those events and the gym can be entered into high-level powerlifting competitions.

She said 40-50 members train at her gym, and many like to compete or watch competitions.