Weekly OPEN Recap – 23.3

CrossFit Open 23.3 is…yet ANOTHER surprise!

2023 is a year for the record books. All 3 workouts made a statement of their own and 23.3 was no different. With the return of a window style WOD of years past, we saw another open first with STRICT handstand push ups paired with heavy snatches, double unders, and wall walks. Talk about shoulder fatigue!! And hey, let’s do all this in a near sprint!

Week 3 Top Performances
  • 23.3 Top 3 RX Women: Coach Jenny, Kelsey Schlicht, Alex Rundell
  • 23.3 Top 3 RX Men: Coach Gavin, Coach George, Cory Gravesmill
  • 23.3 Top 3 SCALED Women: Lauren Ozanich, Michelle Parker, Sara Lynn
  • 23.3 Top 3 SCALED Men: Joey Salser, Shawn Barth, Aaron Carmine

And once again, we saw some great showings on the RTC leaderboard with some first timers and newbies making an appearance. And for the first time ever, we saw the most RX scores ever in RTC history! 

  • Coach Jenny finally had the gymnasty workout she’s been waiting for. Her speedy wall walks and strict HSPU work pushed her into the top female RX score this week!
  • Joey Salser and Aaron Carmine return to the Men’s scaled leaderboard this week, while the Shawn Barth made his way onto the Men’s scaled leaderboard for the first time! 
  • Speaking of the scaled divisions, week 3 once again brought us new faces on the women’s scaled leaderboard as Lauren Ozanich and Sara Lynn made their leaderboard debuts! 
  • And….the Gritty Performance of the Week goes to Lauren Ozanich who took the top spot on the scaled women’s leaderboard by finishing the workout and beating Michelle Parker by ONE second overall! 

Honorable Mentions:

  • Tom Colston crushed the Masters Scaled division finishing the entire workout in 11:17!
  • Coach Nate crushed his repeat attempt! He set a goal of getting 4 snatches at 135 (he missed all his attempts in his original run) and he did just that!
  • Olivia Ferrante improved her tiebreak time in her redo and finished with the same overall reps.
  • Strong couple Steph & Kevin Irwin had a HUGE weekend. Let’s set the scene. They both gave 23.3 a run the first time during FNL. Then they both went to Columbus for the Arnold Pump & Run on Sunday. After that, they both set a goal of a repeats on Monday aiming for improvements in reps and tiebreak time. On Monday afternoon (after a full day at work for Steph and full day of grandpa daycare for Kevin) they both did just that. But wait there’s more! Kevin I set a plan and was fully on target to accomplish a big improvement when he slipped on his 10th wall walk with over 1 full minute remaining in the workout. He went down hard, lost some time, but fought hard to try to salvage the repeat. Unfortunately, he ran out of time….on that attempt. He rested for 45 minutes and then went again. And this time, he did not slip. He improved his overall score and tiebreak time massively. And Steph….she finished the entire workout scaled – that means she did 6 snatches at 85#. She had never ever attempted that weight in the past! Congrats Irwins!
  • Sarah Fister wanted to stop during the 75# snatches, but she kept going and exceeded her expectations!

Other First Times & PRs

  • Aaron Carmine PR’d his snatch!
  • Steph Irwin PR’d her snatch!
  • Greg O’Dell made it through all the doubles unders and 95# snatches.
  • Lauren Ozanich did 2 full RX wall climbs!

Spirit of the Open Mentions:

  • The Thomas family made it to EVERY Sunday Showdown to GET LOUD! And in full family team theme all weekend, every weekend!
  • Shelly Bailey sadly lost one of her fur babies the day before FNL, but she came ready to cheer, support, and encourage all her gym mates!
  • Andrea “Doc Dre” Harris and Baby Harris completed the open (scaled) for the fun of the event. Scores and modifications didn’t matter. Healthy movement was the name of the game this year for our soon to be new Mom!

OVERALL BEST DRESSED FOLKS:

  • Anthony Szczepaniak
  • Sydni Kidd
  • Alex Rundell
  • Scott, Victoria, & Roman!
  • And of course, Parker Feeney

Other Noteables:

  • Over 80 RTC People Completed 23.3 between Friday and Monday. 
  • Redos saw improved scores.
  • We saw more smiles this week solely due to the fact that this was our last workout of the open! And to quote Shawn Barth – “I think collectively as a gym nobody threw up or died. That’s an accomplishment too.” Touché, sir!

THURSDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

Our CrossFit Kids also tackled 23.3 during Thursday Night Lights. Here are some highlights:

  • 13 kids did the WOD + Coach Jeanine partner style!!!!
    • ALL worked SOOOOOO hard and had great attitudes!
    • Plus their teamwork was AMAZING!!!!

TEAM RECAP

Week Three Points

  • Team Jenny & Jeanine aka GYM & JUICE: 70 pts 
  • Team George & Romero aka FLEX APPEAL: 68 pts
  • Team Gavin & Alex aka CHALK DIRTY TO ME 2.0: 66 pts
  • Team Chris & Jenna aka HIGH SPIRITS, LOW EXPECTATIONS: 60 pts
  • Team Steph, Nate, & Colin aka CAN YOU SAY THAT AGAIN, ALLIE: 58 pts
  • Team GYM & JUICE took the overall win for the best dressed team award again this week! They made their presence known with original matching t-shirt designs and matching orange headbands for a pop of color plus enormous team participation at FNL! Well done, team. 
  • TEAM FLEX APPEAL came to play in the team spirit category in week 3. With the strongest overall showing for FNL and Sunday Showdown this week, it seems they saved the best for last….will it be enough to shake up the leaderboard once all the Impact Award and Weekly Challenge points are tallied?!?!?
  • Team CHALK DIRTY TO ME 2.0 had another strong showing this week, but fell a little short with the absence of some key team members at FNL. But don’t count them out yet. Rumor has it Coach Gavin has collected a lot of impact award nominations and weekly challenge points!!!
  • Teams CAN YOU SAY THAT AGAIN, ALLIE & HIGH SPIRITS, LOW EXPECTATIONS gave it their all, but every good competition must have winners and losers…better luck next time guys. 

What to expect next year:

As with all good things, the OPEN must end. But, we know we will back next year!!!!

Stay tuned for our 2023 RTC CUP WINNER & Open Impact Awards COMING TO YOU 3/13/23!!!!

See you guys in 2024!