American Ninja Warrior Season 11 City Finalist Rankings

On Monday Night the sixth and final City Qualifiers episode of American Ninja Warrior Season 11 aired. Next week the City Finals start with trips to Las Vegas and the National Finals at stake. There were a few changes this season, namely with the introduction of the Power Tower where the top two finishers in the City Qualifiers face off with a chance to earn the “Speed Pass” – an automatic spot in the National Finals.

The Power Tower will return at the end of the City Finals with the winner earning the “Safety Pass” which gives them a re-try on either Stage 1 or Stage 2. The Power Tower has added a fun head-to-head aspect to Ninja Warrior, but also come with some critiques that it adds gamesmanship to the competition rather than just being a pure test of athletic prowess. One additional change this season was that competitors who opt to try the Mega Wall can not go back to the regular Warped Wall in order to complete the course.

After the City Qualifiers, 196 ninjas have earned a spot in the City Finals. Earlier this year, I profiled the Top 200 Ninjas entering Season 11 based on their past results. Here is a look at the 196 athletes who will compete for a spot in the National Finals. As a reminder, even though the City Finals will air approximately 6 weeks after the City Qualification episode, they were actually filmed on consecutive days. This means that some cities that had weather conditions impacting the course in qualifying may have those same conditions for the City Finals.

Los Angeles

City Finals air July 15

City Qualifiers Notes:

• 11 course completions
• 1 Mega Wall completion (Scott Willson)
• Only 23 ninjas reached the 5th obstacle (Spin Hopper) and only 3 more reached the 4th obstacle (Diamond Dash).
• 4 of 12 ninjas finished in the Top 30 after falling on the 3rd obstacle (Spring Forward) and 1 of the Top 5 women fell on the 3rd obstacle.
• Tiana Webberley and Anna Shumaker finished in the Top 5 women despite completing just 1 obstacle.

Highest Ranked Eliminations: Derek Miyamoto (108), Ben Antoine (127), Jesse Orenshein (197)

Atlanta

City Finals air July 22

City Qualifiers Notes:

• 17 course completions
• 4 Mega Wall completions (Drew Drechsel, Ryan Stratis, Kevin Carbone, Caleb Bergstrom)
• Morgan “Moose” Wright was the only ninja to reach the 5th obstacle (Ferris Wheel) but not qualify for the City Finals.

Highest Ranked Eliminations: Todd Bourgeois (88), Michael Johnson (95), Bootie Cothran (104), Morgan “Moose” Wright (153)

Oklahoma City

City Finals air July 29

City Qualifiers Notes:

• 13 course completions
• 2 Mega Wall completions (Daniel Gil, Karsten Williams)
• Four ninjas reached the 5th obstacle (Coconut Climb) but did not qualify for the City Finals (Jacob Bowling, Jon Stem, Ken Singletary, Mike Galeski).
• The Top 5 women all reached the 5th obstacle. 4 of the Top 5 women finished in the Top 30.

Highest Ranked Eliminations: Eric Middleton (29), Mike Murray (70), Kevin Klein (96)

Baltimore

City Finals air August 5

City Qualifiers Notes:

• 9 course completions
• NO Mega Wall completions (Joe Moravsky, Najee Richardson, and Chris Wilczewski failed). Some precipitation on the course made the Mega Wall slippery.
• Every ninja that reached the 5th obstacle (Crank It Up) made the City Finals. Only 26 ninjas reached the 5th obstacle.
• 4 of the 12 ninjas to reach the 4th obstacle (Hazard Cones) finished in the Top 30 and 2 more earned spots in the City Finals as the Top 5 women.

Highest Ranked Eliminations: Jon Alexis Jr (19), Andrew Swinghammer (86), Judas Licciardello (87)

Seattle-Tacoma

City Finals air August 12

City Qualifiers Notes:

• 13 course completions
• 1 Mega Wall completion (Lance Pekus)
• 43 ninjas reached the 5th obstacle. 10 (including 2 women) did not qualify for the City Finals (Aaron Lucas, Brian Redard, Charlie Andrews, Holly Beckstrand, Israel Del Rio, Joel Ballard, Justin Conconato, Kenneth Edwards, Megan Rowe, Ryan Phillips).

Highest Ranked Eliminations: Geoff Britten (48), Austin Gray (65),  Jon Stewart (90), Charlie Andrews (161), Sarah Schoback (185)

Cincinnati

City Finals air August 19

City Qualifiers Notes:

• 11 course completions
• 1 Mega Wall completion (Grant McCartney)
• All 30 competitors who reached the 5th obstacle (Slingshot) qualified for the City Finals

Highest Ranked Eliminations: Ian Dory (10), Tyler Yamauchi (39), Alex Carson (62), Kyle Schulze (144)

City Qualifiers Summary

• 74 Course Completions
• 9 Mega Wall Completions
• Speed Pass Winners: Hunter Guerard, Drew Drechsel, Daniel Gil, Dave Cavanagh, Sean Bryan, Ethan Swanson
• 15 ninjas reached the 5th obstacle and did not qualify for the City Finals
• 7 ninjas fell on the 4th obstacle and qualified for the City Finals by finishing in the Top 30
• 4 ninjas fell on the 3rd obstacle and qualified for the City Finals by finishing in the Top 30
• 25 rookies completed City Qualifying courses
• 62 rookies qualified for the City Finals
• 83 of the 200 ninjas in our preseason Ninja Rankings qualified for the City Finals
• 26 of the 200 ninjas in our preseason Ninja Rankings did not qualify for the City Finals
• 91 of the 200 ninjas in our preseason Ninja Rankings did not participate in Season 11
  • Josh Levin did not compete due to training for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (Rock Climbing event)
  • Thomas Stillings was not invited back this season
  • JJ Woods, James McGrath, and Mike Meyers suffered training injuries and unfortunately were not able to compete this season.
  • A number of notable ninjas decided to take Season 11 off, including Brian Arnold, Nicholas Coolridge, Drew Knapp and Isaac Caldiero
  • Andrew Lowes, Jeremiah Morgan and Zhanique Lovett also did not compete this season.

Obstacles Summary

• The new first obstacle (Shrinking Steps) had an 87.8% completion rate (513 out of 584).
• The Los Angeles Qualifiers had the hardest 2nd obstacle in Walk The Plank (38 of 69, 55.1% completion). Oklahoma City had the easiest 2nd obstacle in the Wing Swing (74 of 86, 86% completion). All of the other 2nd obstacles were between 70% to 80% completion rates.
• Baltimore had the most difficult 3rd obstacle in Dangerous Curves (38 of 70, 54.3% completion). Oklahoma City’s Fly Wheels (60 of 74, 81.1%) was the easiest 3rd obstacle. The other 3rd obstacles ranged between 60% and 77% completion rates.
• Despite having the easiest 2nd and 3rd obstacles, Oklahoma City had the most difficult 4th obstacle in the Diving Boards (35 of 60, 58.3% completion). Balance obstacles proved to be the easiest 4th obstacles with Los Angeles’ Diamond Dash (23 of 26, 88.5%) and Seattle’s Broken Bridge (43 of 51, 84.3%) having the highest completion rates. The other 4th obstacles had a completion rate between 64% and 77%.
• The 5th obstacles were generally the most difficult. The easiest were Los Angeles’ Spin Hopper (16 of 23, 69.6%) and Atlanta’s Ferris Wheel (21 of 32, 65.6%). The other four were below 50% with Seattle’s Lightning Bolts the most difficult (18 of 43, 41.9%). Oklahoma City’s Coconut Climb (48.6%), Cincinnati’s Slingshot (46.7%), and Baltimore’s Crank It Up (46.2%) all took out more than half of the ninjas that attempted them.
• Only 4 ninjas failed on the regular Warped Wall this season with 65 reaching the top, a 94.2% completion rate.
• The Mega Wall was attempted 29 times and only 9 ninjas reached the top, making it by far the most difficult obstacle of City Qualifiers at a 31% completion rate.