Surrounded by nearly 300 teams made up of the world’s best lineworkers, the pressure was on as they pushed past near-freezing temperatures for a shot at the podium.

“Years ago, it used to be that you just needed to run a clean rodeo — no deductions,” said Vinnie Sanchez, e-crew foreman on the SCE team from Tulare. “Now, the competition is even more intense. You can't just run clean; you have to be fast too.”

The night before the rodeo, teams were told what the events would be and in which order they’d be competing in them.

For SCE team Jose Leon, Fernando Valenzuela and Fabian Gutierrez, the day started with Mystery Event 2. The three needed to simulate the change out of an energized 4-kV insulator.

After a quick start to the event, a misstep at the top of the pole caused one of the clips to slip off the line and hit the ground, resulting in a two-point deduction.

“I messed up,” said Leon. “Usually, those things just clip right in, I don't know what happened, but it popped off.”

“This is not going to stop us,” added Gutierrez. “This is just a part of rodeos. With that deduction we may be out of the running for all around, but there are a lot more events we can do well and podium in.”

On the other side of the rodeo grounds, SCE team Brandon Gloria, Matt Newton and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) teammate, David Angove, were getting ready for their first event, Pole Climb. This would push them to go as hard as possible right out of the gate — something they’ve practiced 1,000 times without incident.

But just as Gloria was nearly to the top of the pole, he noticed the egg was broken in the bag — meaning they’d get a 10-point deduction.

“I don’t know if I made contact with a pole coming up or what,” said Gloria. “David had a great climb right after me though, so we just need to move forward. We are on to individual events now; it's not over.”

With two of the three teams off to a rocky start, Sanchez and his teammates, Matt Katz and Justin Maple were still deduction free.

All four events went off without a hitch, meaning their goal of placing in the all-around, was in reach but would all come down to time.

“My pole climb time was a little slow at about 54 seconds, which is not what I wanted, but we still feel good about our chances,” said Sanchez.

For Leon, Valenzuela and Gutierrez, the early-morning setback did not hold them back. They completed the rest of their events without any deductions, leaving them in a solid spot to take home medals in any of the individual events.

The same situation played out for Gloria and his team who performed especially well in Mystery Event 2 and Hurt Man Rescue.

“After we finished the mystery event, we were told it was the fastest time so far, we are hopeful it stays that way,” said Gloria.

With competition over for the day, the teams could only wait as the scores were tallied ahead of that evening’s awards ceremony.

When the results were announced, it was clear the teams’ resilience, even after early setbacks, had paid off.

All three teams would be walking across the awards stage, taking home a win for SCE in every single category.

Overall, five of the eight teams placed in an event.