Competing in her first-ever CrossFit Games in the toughest division possible, Grand Canyon University CrossFit freshman Madison Teeter finished among the top 14,000 competitors in the western United States in The Open portion of the worldwide event. The Chehalis, Washington native was one of four Lopes' competitors at the event, including Lopes' Student Leader Caleb Karg and two other first-time participants: GCU freshman Jayden Whitford and Lopes' sophomore Eli Poet.
 
Teeter finished in the top 70% of all female competitors in the tough Rx Division, but couldn't become the third Lope ever to advance to the quarterfinal round, which features the top 25% of Open qualifiers out of over 250,000 men and women (nearly 10% more than a year ago) that compete in the three-week open portion. It was the second straight year that event organizers revamped the competition, re-adding the quarterfinal qualifier after overall entry numbers dropped last year when that round was eliminated.
 
"The reinstatement of the quarterfinals motivated all of our athletes to push extra hard," said Karg. "Having that extra step through the trenches is affirming and gives a realistic target for everyone to shoot for. I like that everyone (for us) shot for Rx, which is challenging and humbling. We went through an assessment in a sense and got honest feedback on where to focus our energy, which is half the process for growth."
 
To reach that plateau over the three-week period, the Lopes' participants convened at CrossFit Jump Ship in north Phoenix – as well as other gyms when they went home during GCU Spring Break. Teeter ultimately led the way with a finishing point total after her three workouts of 231,316, placing her 69,243^rd among females overall. Karg had his opportunity as well to advance but wasn't able to submit his third and final workout before the deadline, finishing 77,898^th overall. Whitford – whose 228,817 points nearly put her in the top 15,000 women in the western U.S. - and Poet - who narrowly missed the top 90,000 (90,729^th among males overall) - also made their marks in their first-ever Open – despite not completing all three of the required workout sessions due to Spring Break logistics.
 
"Madi has shown a ton of work this year, always being the first to show up at practice and the last to leave," said Karg. "She has the work ethic and the qualities to make a great leader and really go far in the Open if she keeps her nose to the grindstone and keeps swinging iron. Jayden stepped up to the challenge in only her first year doing CrossFit after showing tremendous improvement in her strength and skills over the course of the year. Eli is an absolute beast and will take his talents into the Navy next year. He humbles me in every workout we do, and I have no doubt that if he had been able to submit (all of his) scores, he'd have been close to making that quarterfinal cut-off - if not passing it.

This next year in the gym is where we get to push harder with the appropriate rest periods to prime their abilities to place even better for next year, and now those who didn't compete this past year have peers who are motivated to do it, too. The real beauty behind the Open is watching the CrossFit community come together to cheer on our family, really, as they push themselves to the limit, and we got to see that at Jump Ship with their amazing community."