As a 19-year-old rookie, David Wright is having quite the American Ninja Warrior season. He completed the Oklahoma City Qualifier course. He then managed to complete the City Finals course, a big accomplishment for any competitor, especially a first-timer.

David has the kind of straight-forward excitement about him that you’d expect from a young Ninja Warrior competitor. He’s known as the Cake Ninja for the most basic reason ever; He really loves cake. The crowd, and hosts Matt and Akbar, munched on cupcakes as David put up his impressive City Finals run, making it a sweet experience for all involved.

David told us more about what happened from his perspective that night and how his genuine excitement will carry through to Las Vegas and the National Finals.

Brett Deering/NBC

“I actually can’t remember much about City Finals night. I think my one goal was ... It wasn’t to finish, it was just to do well enough to get a backpack in Vegas. (National Finalists get a backpack.) So, going into it, it was really blank for me. You know, zone out, don’t worry about anything, just go. I went and that’s how that happened.

There are three things I remember. First one is trying to tell myself just to breath when I walked up to the stage. It was just like, ‘Breathe David, breathe David.’ I wasn’t breathing and someone stopped me and they were like, ‘Breathe David.’ I was like, ‘Oh, okay. I can breathe.’

The second thing I remember is, well I don’t remember this while I was running, but I kissed the palm tree. So, obstacle number five, I kissed it before I went on it. It was just like after that everybody pointed that out. I was just like, ‘Oh God. I’m so embarrassed.’ Then, the last thing was me on the final obstacle just looking up and thinking, ‘Oh, that’s not as tall as I thought it was.”

“I think I got really excited because I inhaled some of the smoke that came. Yeah, so I was up there coughing, but you know it felt really nice to be able to just hit it. I was like, ‘It’s over. I’m done. I can go to sleep.’ I sat on the edge for a long time. They were like, ‘Um, you’ve got to come down.’ I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ It took me a while to get off that high of finishing.”

“Going into this (the National Finals), my mindset is I just want to have fun. That’s all I’m going to worry about. It’s going to be one obstacle at a time. I’m going to try not to stress myself out too much, you know? Not planning out my steps. I’ll just be like, ‘Okay, it’s this obstacle. All right, I did it. This obstacle. All right, I did it.’ Then, hopefully I’ll finish with me looking at a buzzer.”

David will return to tackle Stage One of the National Finals in a few weeks.