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Tonight is the night: The very last City Finals episode! Cincinnati, we are ready for you! We are ready to hear the buzzers, see the smoke, and delight in the sweet smiles of victory. After coming up buzzer-less in both Tacoma and Baltimore, we need some course completions in our life. Who’s going to make that happen for us? Will one of these Ninjas come up victorious against the grueling Cincinnati City Finals course? Take a look at the determined faces in these sneak peek photos from tonight’s course. The Ninjas have been preparing, training, and sacrificing for this. Will tonight be their night?
A solid competitor ever since his rookie year in Season 8, and one of the powerhouse Ninjas from the Chicago area, Michael Torres has his adorable sidekick, Hershey, on the sideline. As if having training partners like Ethan Swanson and Jesse Labreck isn’t awesome enough, Michael also has the advantage of training with Hershey, the Ninja Pup! It looks like Hershey is keeping Michael’s cardio game strong.
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It’s been a couple years since Grant McCartney has earned a spot in the National Finals, but he looked mega-strong in the Cincinnati City Qualifiers, earning bragging rights as the only Ninja to conquer the Mega Wall in Cincinnati. Can he keep the momentum going?
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Nineteen year old, Sem Garay hit the buzzer in the Qualifiers. Can he go on the way on the Finals course?
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Jesse Labreck and Chris DiGangi have a bit of a track record for performing very similarly on the ANW course. Since Season 8, they have gotten to the same obstacle on the American Ninja Warrior course SIX times. (In Season 8 they both failed on the Rolling Thunder in the Philadelphia Qualifiers. In Season 9, their entire seasons were the same – buzzer in Cleveland Qualifying, failed on the Nail Clipper in Cleveland Finals, and failed on the Flying Squirrel during Stage 1 in Las Vegas. In Season 10, they both hit a buzzer at the Indianapolis Qualifiers, and they both fell at Cane Lane during the Indianapolis Finals.) Only one of them hit a buzzer during the City Qualifiers this season, but they’ll both get another chance at a buzzer tonight during the Cincinnati Finals. Can they stay in sync all the way to the buzzer?
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Jeri D’Aurelio has made it to Vegas the past two seasons, but she’ll be up against some pretty stiff competition tonight (Michelle Warnky and Jesse Labreck, to name a couple…). Is a trip to Vegas in Jeri’s future?
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Tune in to see all the buzzers (or not!?!) tonight, August 19, at 8/7c on NBC.