This past week’s episodes showed the great runs of 30 tough competitors in the semi-final round of American Ninja Warrior 3. The purpose of the semi-final round was to select the top 15 competitors who would advance to Boot Camp where they would have insane competitions to pick the top 10 athletes that would form Team America and get to go compete Ninja Warrior Japan (Sasuke 28). The semifinals utilized the opening round course of six obstacles, with modifications to a couple of them to make them more difficult (e.g. removing a bar on the Jumping Bars for only 3 bars instead of 4 covering the same distance), and then adding three more difficult obstacles on at the “end” of the opening round course. Competitors will be familiar with them by now: the dreaded Salmon Ladder, the Unstable Bridge, and the Long-Ass Cargo Net Climb (*not official name).

On what was a clearly exhausting and competitive course, the following top 15 competitors advanced, with basically completion of the Salmon Ladder being the threshold point between advancing to Boot Camp and going home. Of note…only one competitor completed the entire course, badass Ryan Stratis. Ryan’s a super-nice guy and very dedicated to his ninja-ness, and has made an amazing progression to improve every competition.

Here are the final results from the semifinal round. I was pleased to have 5 ninja buddies of mine advance to the Boot Camp round…mad props to Ryan Stratis, Chris Wilczewski, David Campbell, Travis Rosen, and Travis Furlanic.

1) Ryan Stratis – Completed Course
2) Chris Wilczewski – Completed Salmon Ladder at 1:21.5
3) Paul Kasemir – Completed Salmon Ladder at 1:23.37
4) Drew Drechsel – Completed Salmon Ladder at 1:25.89
5) David Campbell – Completed Salmon Ladder at 1:31.72
6) Brent Steffensen – Completed Salmon Ladder at 1:33.78
7) Travis Rosen – Completed Salmon Ladder at 1:34.89
8 Travis Furlanic – Completed Salmon Ladder at 1:37.92
9) Dustin Rocho – Completed Salmon Ladder at 1:46.52
10) Brian Orosco – Completed Salmon Ladder at 1:58.71
11) Brandon Douglass – Completed Salmon Ladder at 2:03.59
12) David “Young Flip” Rodriguez – Completed Salmon Ladder at 2:05.74
13) James McGrath – Completed Salmon Ladder at 2:06.44
14) Michael “Frosti” Zernow – Completed Salmon Ladder at 2:17.37
15) Alan Connealy – Completed Warped Wall at 45.2