These 2 Tri-Citians are Ninja Warriors. Did they make the cut?

A Tri-City high school math teacher could easily compute her chances of improving her performance at American Ninja Warrior competition with two good ankles versus one.

Two years ago, Nicole Hatcher hurt her Achilles tendon two weeks before the competition.

A warrior at heart, she still competed on the popular national reality TV competition that puts fit competitors through seemingly impossible obstacle courses, testing the limits of their strength, endurance and balance.

About 130 competitors try out in each city, but just 10-12 make the show. The 33-year-old Kennewick math instructor is one of two Tri-Citians testing their skills against some of the most elite fitness athletes in the country.

Hanford High assistant wrestling coach Fred Lewis, an Army veteran, also is making a second run at the competition.

The Green Beret left the service in 2011 with a brain injury after taking a sniper’s bullet to the helmet in Afghanistan. He’s got something new to prove to himself.

The ultimate winner of American Ninja Warrior could earn $1 million — but most have to settle for bragging rights.

‘A bit of a learning curve’

Hatcher competed March 6-7 in Los Angeles. She said the episode should air on NBC in May, but does not know if she made the viewing cut.

“Things went better,” she said. “Whatever happened at the competition was a cherry on top.”

A standout track athlete at Southridge High School and Washington State University, Hatcher returned to teach and coach at Southridge, which is where she does a majority of her training.

“You have to work hard to get wherever you want to go,” she said. “This is no different. There is a bit of a learning curve.”

As the boys track coach at Southridge, Hatcher takes advantage of the school’s weight room and facilities.

In 2016, she trained at SED Fitness in Pasco, but without a dedicated ninja facility in the Tri-Cities, she designed her own workout.

“I just kind of make things up as I go, piece it together and hope for the best,” Hatcher said. “There are a lot of little things that you have to know how to do.”

Finger strength also is important.

It wasn’t practical to use the rock climbing facility at Tri-City Court Club, so Hatcher devised a workout for that too.

It includes a lot of hanging from a bar and holding dumbbells from the plate end to increase her grip strength.

“There are different obstacles at the different cities,” Hatcher said. “You have no idea about the obstacles until you get there. You try to learn from the competitors in front of you.”

Two obstacles are pretty much a given — the salmon ladder and the warped wall.

The wall is about 14-feet high and features a lip that curves toward the competitor. Ninjas get a running start up the wall, then must jump to catch the lip and pull themselves up.

“The warped wall, there is technique behind it,” Hatcher said. “Over the summer, I went to the gym and worked on that. It’s harder than people think.”

Whereas monkey bars go straight across, the salmon ladder has the competitor climbing upward, one peg at a time, like doing a pull-up while taking the bar with you.

Hatcher said she worked with Bethlehem Lutheran teacher and would-be competitor Eric Haan on that obstacle.

Haan built a miniature course in his backyard for himself, but he gave Hatcher permission to practice on it.

“On the show when you fall it’s in water,” she said. “In training, it’s the ground and it hurts.”

‘Hardest thing I have ever done in my life’

Lewis made his second appearance at the competition March 25-26 in Dallas

“The biggest problem I have is not being able to train on obstacles and learn how to move my body on the obstacles,” he said.

Lewis of Pasco said he works out at a variety of places, including Crossfit Unrestrained in west Pasco, LifeQuest and OrangeTheory.

“I work out way too much,” Lewis said, adding that he also does Spartan races and mud runs.

But the 40-year-old has something else pushing him too — a lucky encounter with an enemy sniper.

Lewis said he was in the Army for 14 years as a special forces medical sergeant.

When he was shot he was looking up at the time, with his head tipped back. The round hit the front of his helmet at just the right angle, snapping his neck back and causing a hairline fracture to one of his vertebrae.

“It was a million dollar shot,” Lewis said of the 2008 incident. The Department of Veterans Affairs rated him 100 percent disabled — that meant his first four years as a civilian involved “taking pills and such.”

“You talk to the VA, you are disabled,” Lewis said. “That’s what they expect you to accept.”

Working out and farming has put Lewis in a good place. He’s looking for a little land to lease and grow a few vegetables.

He said the TV show’s producers liked his story. It’s a life experience that gives him audience appeal.

But it doesn’t change the difficulty he faced trying to master the course. Lewis called it “awesome” and “impossible.”

“Everything has to work out right,” Lewis said. “This is more stressful than anything I have done in combat. It’s the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.”

Lewis said his program is scheduled to air June 7. He said he hopes to make the cut this season.

This story was originally published April 5, 2018 at 6:49 PM with the headline "These 2 Tri-Citians are Ninja Warriors. Did they make the cut?."