The “Mid-South” region, also previously called “South Central”, is on deck tonight on G4 and tomorrow (Monday) on NBC. There are a number of amazing athletes and veteran competitors in this tough region, quite a number of them from the dominant APEX Movement pack out of Colorado.

Jake “Love” Smith – Finalist from American Ninja Warrior 3, where he failed on the double salmon ladder in Japan, and professional free-runner who also competed in G4’s great Jump City: Seattle parkour/freerunning competition, Jake makes things look easy that are hard. A true threat to win it all. One of many APEX competitors in this region.
Paul Kasemir – Paul is a two-time American Ninja Warrior finalist, and competed in Sasuke (Ninja Warrior Japan) two times, reaching the third stage both times. Paul is ridiculously smooth and fast, and like his team-mate Jake Smith is one of the handful of competitors who are a threat to take down the $500k on top of Mt Midoriyama Las Vegas.
Jereme Sanders – Jereme is an icon in the parkour community having been a member of The Tribe, widely recognized as America’s first parkour team, and has competed in multiple seasons of American Ninja Warrior and in the single season of Jump City: Seattle. Jereme has a ton of experience attacking obstacles in his life, and a day on the course of American Ninja Warrior is just another day of play for him, so he’s a big threat to go deep out of the Mid South region.
Jaret Salas – Jaret is a first-timer to American Ninja Warrior, but I’ve been training with him for the last year and the dude is sick. Incredibly strong, agile, well-conditioned athlete that might just come out of nowhere and shock everybody. 505 in the house!
Josh Kronberg – Josh is a member of our unofficial “Middle-Aged Ninja Dads Club” of competitors. He’s a very dedicated competitor, and just barely missed advancing to the semi-finals in American Ninja Warrior 3. He’s got a great obstacle course in his backyard that he’s built and he’s trained on (including letting me play on it a few times), and he’s a very focused strong athlete with a lot of practical experience under his belt. Look for him to go far. Check out the competitor interview he gave me earlier. 505 in the house!
Risa Scott – One of the top women of American Ninja Warrior, and another amazing competitor from Team Apex, I can’t even do the Human Flag in my imagination as long as Risa can do it in real life (YouTube it if you don’t believe me). Risa is a threat to become the first woman to complete the opening stage in American Ninja Warrior.
Old Men of Austin – Interestingly enough, two of the strongest older competitors in all of American Ninja Warrior both hail out of Austin: Jason Bischoff and Craig Stiles, ages 44 and 48 respectively. They’ll be holding it down for the middle-aged guys in the Mid South!
Chris Okruhlik – Check out the interview and bio in the post below for more info on Chris! Check out his competitor interview.

As always, there are many deserving competitors that I’m neglecting here…forgive me.