It’s all downhill from here!
Three weeks down, and unless Dave Castro is hiding multiple workouts in the coming weeks, we’re past the halfway point of the 2018 Open.
Open Workout 18.3 presented a multifaceted skills test on top of the usual pain and suffering that’s par for the course each week in the Open.
Need to get better on double-unders? Here’s your chance.
Working toward muscle-ups—ring or bar? Here’s your chance.
Got all the skills and need to make a move up the leaderboard? Buckle up, kemosabe. You’ve got yourself a one-way ticket to the pain cave.
This was my favorite workout of the four thus far, and even though my calves are in worse shape than Pat Sherwood after a trip to Sizzler, I would love to see it show up in future Open programming.
Below are my grades for one of the most fun Open workouts to date.
Grade: 105% (extra credit added)
Dakota Rager
Right now Dakota Rager is my leader in the clubhouse for the most impressive performance so far this season.
He provided a definitive answer to the question of whether anyone would complete the workout under the time cap not once, but twice.
The first time he did it, he finished in 13:30, did 13 bar muscle-ups in the first round, didn’t miss a double-under, went faster in his second round and finished looking like he’d barely warmed up.
That alone would have earned him a perfect score (and an F for whoever was controlling the music and let Pandora ads pop up during his workout). But like that one girl in grade school with pictures of horses on her binder who aces every test but still shows up for extra credit after school, he wanted more.
Rager dialed up a second attempt and managed to somehow chip another 5 seconds off his first time, finishing in 13:25. Immediately after, he once again looked like he’d hardly worked out.
I just don’t understand it. It doesn’t seem human. I’ve seen Pat Sherwood be more out of breath eating a muffin than Dakota Rager was after completing 928 reps in 805 seconds.
He did shave his head between attempts to be more aerodynamic, which explains the improvement (#science), but in the meantime, Mr. Rager gets himself a perfect score plus a little extra.
Grade: A
Josh Bridges
This grade was pretty much a gimme as Josh Bridges was the only other athlete besides Dakota Rager to finish 18.3 in its entirety under the time cap.
Bridges has made a career of laying down eye-popping Open performances. He’s second in all-time career Open workout wins for any athlete, male or female, behind only Sam Briggs.
Even though he didn’t get the win in the workout, there are definitely some bragging rights in being one of only two humans on the planet to finish.
It’s akin to finishing “the Old 96’er,” from the movie “The Great Outdoors.” Who cares if someone did it faster? You finished 6 lb. of steak, got a free meal, and some hats and shirts for the kids. That’s a win in my book.
More importantly, Bridges stepped up to one of the most formidable programming challenges the Open has ever seen.
He did so as a newly christened “masters athlete,” in the 35-39 Division. He’s coming off his worst finish ever at the Games, but workouts like 18.3 prove to the world that he’s still got plenty of fight left in him.
Not that anyone would really question that anyway.
Kelly Garber
Kelly Garber, in my opinion, had the most impressive performance of any masters female in Week 3. Garber won the workout in the Women’s 55-59 Division with a score of 826 reps.
She was the only woman in her division to make it to the final set of 100 double-unders, and by doing so, she put herself in some pretty prestigious company.
Garber and Sam Briggs were the only two masters women across any division to make it into the final set of double-unders.
Any time your name can be placed alongside Sam Briggs in any Open workout in terms of performance, it’s a tremendous accomplishment.
The performance gave her a nice boost up the Leaderboard and moves her into 20th place heading into Week 4. It was her second-straight top-10 finish worldwide in her division after she finished 10th in 18.2a.
Last year, Garber was unable to complete the Online Qualifier after finishing 13th in the 50-54 Division in the Open.
This year she’s aged up and is one of the “young ones” in her category. Hopefully 18.3 helps her build some momentum and she can get her shot at making the Games in the qualifiers.
Haley Adams
In my “10 to Watch” article leading into this season, I included Haley Adams and Kaela Stephano and their seasons-long battle as a must follow in the Teenage Division this year.
So far they’ve held court as the top two athletes worldwide, and Haley Adams just claimed the latest victory in the Open by winning 18.3 convincingly.
Adams’ 798 reps weren’t just good enough to win her age division; they also placed her second in the workout in the Mid Atlantic as an individual and gave Adams the 26th-best Rx’d score worldwide for the women’s competition.
A quick scroll of the leaderboard and you’ll see that she beat some of the world’s best in Cassidy Lance-McWherter, Emily Abbott, Chyna Cho, Thuri Helgadottir, Anna Tobias, Margaux Alvarez, Katrin Davidsdottir and Annie Thorisdottir.
Need I remind you she’s 17?
Last year Adams qualified for Regionals as a 16-year-old whippersnapper and finished in a respectable 14th.
She’s sitting in 39th currently in the Mid Atlantic, so another invite to Regionals may be out of reach this year, but her consolation, at least for now, is a top grade this week.
Grade: B-
Cody Mooney
Cody Mooney rebounded nicely from a less-than-stellar Week 2 to move back toward a qualifying spot for Regionals in the North East.
Mooney finished 31st in 18.3, moving him closer to the top 25 after both of his finishes in Week 2 were outside the top 100 in his region.
He’s still recovering from off-season shoulder surgery, so a strong performance in a shoulder intensive workout with muscle-ups and overhead squats is encouraging for his season going forward.
Based on the current total points for both Mooney and 25th-place Michael Ruggeri, Mooney needs to average a 33rd-place finish in his region in the remaining workouts to move his way back up into the top 25 and guarantee himself an invite to Regionals.
He’s still got some work to do, though, and who knows what’s in store programming-wise the next two weeks?
All things considered, he gets a decent grade for Week 3.
Grade: C-
Lukas Högberg
One of the more memorable moments of last year’s Regionals was the tense announcement of Frederik Aegidius as the final qualifier from Meridian, followed by a heartwarming moment of celebration shared with his partner Annie Thorisdottir.
There was at least one person in that moment who probably wasn’t joining in on the celebration: Lukas Högberg.
Coming off his best finish at the Games in 2016, Högberg was on the losing end of the qualification announcement as Aegidius beat him out for the fifth spot by just two points.
HIs comeback quest so far is off to a rocky start. He’s currently 29th in Europe North after three weeks.
He had a strong finish in 18.3, and if he follows that up with two more, he should be safe as far as Regional invites go.
However, Europe split into three regions this year, and despite that, Högberg is still on the bubble fighting for a spot. That’s why this week he gets a C-.
