Mathis Owhadi snags the fastest Stage One time on night one

As Mathis ‘Kid’ Owhadi started his run on Stage One, Akbar yelled out, “He can’t gamble in Vegas, but he could win a $1 million!”

That’s a perfect way to describe what’s going on with this American Ninja Warrior. At just 19-years-old, he’s one of the youngest competitors ever on the program. He’s also enjoyed a pretty perfect rookie season. In both the Dallas Qualifiers and City Finals, he completed the course with one of the top five times.

Mathis isn’t exactly inexperienced though. He’s been training with the likes of Daniel Gil and Drew Drechsel for years. As Mathis told us earlier, those relationships are a huge part of why we’re seeing him on the course now.

“Training with Daniel Gil is amazing. We push each other. Barclay Stockett. The whole community in Houston is great. I think that’s what’s kept me going for so long. I think it if was just Ninja and not the people, I’d be like, ‘Alright, this is cool.’ But it wouldn’t be something I’d want to do for seven years in a row.”

When Daniel Gil tore through Stage One with a time of 1:46.65, we thought we’d seen the fastest time of the night, hands down. But then Mathis showed us what happens when the student surpasses the teacher.

The Double Dipper knocked out so many Ninjas in such a brutal way that we closed our eyes for this part. Not going to lie.

We could breath a little bit after that, but the Jumping Spider still takes out vets who’ve experienced it before.

Unfazed by those challenges, Mathis zipped into Jeep Run. He used a time-saving technique of reaching across the wheels, instead of setting up for a laché.

Mathis was not pausing between obstacles. As soon as he hit the landing pad on one, he was running towards the next.

It became clear that he was as threat for the top time of the night. He landed lower on the cargo net of Twist and Fly than Daniel did. But he still had the time left to make up for it.

Jaws dropped as Mathis hit the buzzer about two seconds faster than Daniel. His perfect rookie season was still intact.

Mathis flashed three fingers to the camera and pointed towards the tower of Stage Four, indicated he still had three more buzzers to collect.

We’ll see if Mathis’ time of 1:44.71 holds up after the second half of the field runs Stage One, but it’s definitely going to be a hard one to beat.

On September 10, we’ll watch as Mathis takes on Stage Two of the American Ninja Warrior National Finals!