Community Comes Together For A Workout With Greater Meaning

Green Country natives tackle the Fourth Annual Z-MAN Workout honoring a Jenks boy's birthday who died in a car crash in 2017.

Matthew Van Horn lost his wife Erin and son Zachary in the accident, and said he's grateful for groups like T-Town South that keep his son's memory alive.

Sunday would’ve been Zachary Van Horn’s 14th birthday, so community members are in Bixby celebrating the little man’s legacy.

Fitness members joined friends and family of Zachary’s dad Matthew Van Horn for an hour-long Z-MAN workout.

Van Horn said a few months following the fatal car accident involving the Jenks families, a friend of the Van Horns in the special forces developed a workout remembering Zachary, whose dad says he was a very active kid. Van Horn told News On 6 the military often comes up with workouts of the day honoring a fallen soldier. Now, the Z-MAN started as CrossFit Hero workout but has been modified through the years by runners, local gymnasts, and other athletes.

Van Horn said it's pretty intense—9000 meters of rowing broken up into intervals and combined with ball slams, battle rope, pushups, and dips. He said friends from across the country send him videos of themselves each year doing the workout.

On Monday, Jenks Trojan Athletics will do an eight minute warmup in memory of Zachary.