PREPS ALCOVE

Arrowhead's Amann to appear on American Ninja Warrior

JR Radcliffe
jr.radcliffe@jrn.com

Taylor Amann is part of the next generation of ninjas.

The popular reality competition “American Ninja Warrior” is courting a younger cast of top-flight athletes with its upcoming “Team Ninja Warrior: College Madness” competition, inviting college students from around the country to compete. Amann, an Arrowhead High School graduate and pole vaulter for the University of Wisconsin, will be part of a trio representing the Badgers when the airings begin Nov. 22 on Esquire.

“It was awesome; it was really legit and actually really intimidating,” said Amann, who recently returned from filming the competition at an outdoor venue in Los Angeles. “There’s a big crowd and they’re all cheering for you; they all know your name. Some of that is probably pretty staged, but it was awesome.”

Amann, 20, had recently returned from nationals in track and field, where she took 21st place for Wisconsin, when she received a Facebook message from a friend at UW. The competition was calling for two males and one female per team, and as a club gymnast and track standout, Amann had the skill set that made her an ideal candidate.

“We made a submission video, and I had to take video of me pole vaulting or during drills, pull-ups, push-ups, that kind of stuff, and they called us for a phone interview and asked about our background,” Amann said. “Probably three weeks later, we got a call that said we’d been accepted and they were going to fly us out in August.”

The event features 16 teams, all from major colleges and universities, and pits them against each other along intra-conference rivalry lines. Wisconsin opens against Maryland, with Michigan and Ohio State facing off in the other battle involving Big Ten teams.

The show, based on a Japanese construct and brought to America in 2009 (airing on NBC since 2011), has been a wildly successful sports entertainment franchise in which competitors attempt to navigate a series of obstacles that increase in difficulty.

The team competition adds a new wrinkle, with competitors from each team racing side by side in an attempt to reach the end of the course first. Amann raced alongside her female counterpart on the opposing team.

She can’t reveal the results, and even her parents are in the dark about how her team fared.

“I’m so excited but kind of nervous (to see myself on TV),” she said. “They can portray you however they want. It was really hard (not telling my parents), because I tell them everything. I just want them to be excited. They originally told us (it would air in) January, and I thought that was going to be really difficult.”

She said the itinerary was frenzied (“There’s no time to eat, no time to sit, they just kept saying, ‘Wisconsin, you’re up, you’re up.’”), but she did feel the balance, coordination and speed of her sports background served her well.

Amann spent three years at Arrowhead on the varsity gymnastics team before focusing on track and field as a senior. She finished second at the WIAA Division 1 state meet as a senior, and her current personal-best pole vault at UW is 13 feet, 7 ¾ inches.

“My two teammates are trying out for the regular American Ninja Warrior, and they want me to try again,” Amann said. “I’m not old enough yet, so I guess we'll see where track takes me or where my career goes when I graduate. I guess it really depends. It would be fun to do again but also nice to have that one experience.”

The competition will run over a series of five airings, beginning Nov. 22.