Grid League 2026 – Wild vs Venom: Venom Take the Opener 19-16

For ten straight races to open the 2026 season, the Las Vegas Venom chased the Atlanta Wild without once holding the lead. Then the fans got their say.

New for 2026, every Grid League match includes a fan-voted ringer point, a one-on-one duel where supporters vote ahead of time on what the test will be. Think of it as an All-Star skills challenge dropped into the middle of a live match, except the points count. The Miami crowd voted for heavy clean and jerks, 300 pounds for the men. With the Wild up 15-14 and two races left, the Venom sent out Tyler Anderson, an Olympic weightlifter who played for the original Daytona Beach Venom and is back on the roster after time away from the sport. The Wild answered with Kawika Henderson, a strength specialist who came into the weekend still recovering from dehydration.

Anderson lost his grip on the first clean, reset, and finished all three reps in 19.34 seconds. Henderson got the bar overhead but couldn’t complete enough of his lifts before time. The DNF handed the Venom two points and their first lead of the entire match. They never gave it back, closing out the Sprint Relay to win the season opener 19-16 at the Miami International Fitness Expo on May 23.

A first half decided by fractions

The Venom dug themselves an early hole, taking a penalty in the opening partner four race and walking away with zero points. In Grid League scoring, a race win is worth two points and the loser still earns one by finishing close enough behind, so a zero stings twice.

Las Vegas spent the next hour climbing out. Camron Colbert beat Devon Braykovich in the first ringer point, nine tall wall balls, to square the match at four. The two Echo races split, and the margin on the second one was 0.59 seconds.

The Wild flexed in the ladder, the strength race where players alternate down the Grid lifting progressively heavier bars, outscoring the Venom 81-73. Atlanta is built for that race. Three of their men and three of their women cleared every bar on their side. But 81-73 falls inside the ten-point window that still earns the loser a point, so the Venom escaped with something.

Then Alec Smith, a four-time CrossFit Games athlete and one of the first people to ever butterfly a muscle-up, took the second ringer point over Wild rookie Gavin D’Amato in the ring muscle-up duel. Halfway through the match, the score sat at 10-10.

Trading punches

The Wild took Jack and Jill, the bodyweight specialist showcase, by seven seconds after their rookies recovered from early faults on the triple touches. The Venom answered in the female triad, where Tori Hite and the Venom women held off Atlanta on the closing 205-pound axle bar deadlifts to win by 0.69 seconds. The men’s triad went the other way, with Patrick Long powering the Wild through the heavy back half of the race.

Six of the first ten races were decided by less than ten seconds, and the Venom still had not led. It was 15-14 Wild with the fan-voted clean and jerks waiting, and Las Vegas had exactly the right player for them.

The finish

“I tell the whole team, think you’re going fast, you can go faster.”

Venom co-captain Tori Hite , before the Sprint Relay

The Sprint Relay closes every match and pays three points to the winner, which means no lead of one or two is ever safe. One player on the Grid at a time, eight elements, and four men and four women have to cross the finish line. The Venom led it wire to wire. Mixas Miller, making her Wild debut on a torn meniscus, ground through 25 thrusters at 100 pounds to open for Atlanta, but a faulted devil’s press in the middle of the race widened the gap. Robbie Rodriguez ran the anchor leg for Las Vegas, finishing 25 thrusters and crossing the line at 4:16.38, seventeen seconds clear.

Final: Venom 19, Wild 16.

The Venom spent two seasons saying they needed veterans. Anderson, Smith, Hite, and Rodriguez are why coach Paul Behar could stand on the sideline before the deciding ringer and say his team had been dialed in all day. He was right. The Wild, running a roster full of rookies under coach Danny Jackson, made a returning contender sweat for every point of a three-point match. Both teams looked like they belong in the playoff conversation, and this was only week one.

Race-by-race results

The Venom are the official Las Vegas team of the United Grid League

Coed teams racing head-to-head, and the 2026 season is just getting started.

Get TicketsWatch the Full MatchMeet the VenomShop Venom GearHow Grid League Works

Up Next