Grid League 2026 – Wolves vs Lions: Lions Win the Last Race and the East

The Fort Lauderdale Lions and the New York Wolves were tied 16-16 when the Sprint Relay started in the Eastern Conference Final on October 4 in Lakeland, Florida, and Briley Smith put the Lions in front on the first element. He worked through the clusters at 155 pounds ahead of the Wolves, Lily Finger finished the last rep, and the Lions never gave the lead back across the seven elements that followed.

Darren Lasso, a veteran who has been in the league since the beginning and was playing his first match in a long time, finished his burpee wall jumps just ahead of the Wolves. Cristhian Alvarez Diaz finished his two ring hang-to-handstands first, Janine Stallings finished her bar muscle-ups ahead of the Wolves, and Tricia Davis closed the race on the deadlifts in 3:21.40. The Sprint Relay pays three points to the winner, and the Lions won the match 19-17 to reach the championship that afternoon.

A rookie team that did not race like one

The Wolves came in as the top overall seed and the first expansion team in league history to make the playoffs, and they had a bye through the first round. The Lions came in off a semifinal against the Palm Beach Breakers the day before that was decided in the Sprint Relay.

The Wolves took the first two races. The opening Partner Forward was thrusters and a heavy jump rope, and the Wolves won it by 11.62 seconds. The Mirror, a barbell race of back squats at 315 pounds for the men and 210 for the women, finished so close that both teams raised a finger. Video confirmed the Wolves won it. The Lions threw their challenge flag, and the referees ruled the challenge void because it came after the 30 seconds teams are allowed, which left the Wolves ahead 4-2.

Cristhian Alvarez Diaz started the Lions’ climb back in the first ringer point, a one-on-one duel inside the match. The race was three burpee backflips and a sprint, and he beat Sydney Pawlak to the line by a hair, a finish the officials confirmed on video, to cut the Wolves’ lead to 5-4.

Back-to-back Echoes

The Echo is the same race run twice, 45 seconds apart. This one was 16 sandbags over a 6-foot-1-inch wall, eight aerials, three ring hang-to-handstands and a rope sled pull. The Lions won the first by 1.05 seconds after moving past the Wolves on the sled.

Eric Cardona played the weekend on a strained calf, and he did every aerial for the Lions in both Echoes. In the second Echo, the Lions were down to their last five aerials while the Wolves fell behind, and Ryan DeMattie and Finger finished the sled for a 43-second win and an 8-7 lead. The broadcast analyst named Cardona his MVP at that point in the match.

The Wolves won the Ladder, a push press race up to 300 pounds for the men and 200 for the women, 78-69. The Lions finished inside the ten-point window for a point, and the score was 9-9 at halfway.

The second half

The Wolves’ Daniel Lynne won the second ringer point, 13 bar-facing burpees against Janine Stallings’ 12. Lions coach Paul Moran challenged Lynne’s reps, and the review found two that should not have counted. That was worth a three-second penalty against a margin of more than six seconds, so the result stood and the Wolves led 11-9.

The Lions won the next three races. Cardona, Paula Leyes, Cristhian Alvarez Diaz and Megan Medeiros took Jack and Jill, with Leyes finishing the last L-sit rope climb. Medeiros, Davis, Leyes and Stallings won the Female Triad to tie the match 13-13, and DeMattie, Smith, Taylor Sturgis, Lasso and Cardona won the Male Triad by 25 seconds for a 15-14 lead.

Medeiros talked to the broadcast between those races about how the Lions were approaching a first-year team.

“There’s a rookie team, but they don’t really look like rookies. We know that. We knew that going in. So I think the most important thing is just to focus on us, focus on what we can do, or what we can control, and just keep pushing forward.”

Megan Medeiros, Fort Lauderdale Lions

Fans voted for eight bar-facing burpees and a 200-pound sandbag over a yoke in the fan-voted ringer point. The Wolves’ Brandon Ferraro won it over DeMattie, and the match went to the Sprint Relay tied.

The Lions won seven of the 12 races, including both Echoes, both triads and the Sprint Relay. They advanced to the championship against the Southwest Florida Sharks, a rematch of the 2025 final, a few hours later.

Race-by-race results