American Ninja Warrior 2019 Results and Highlights from Episode 1

The 11th season of American Ninja Warrior kicked off Wednesday with Los Angeles qualifiers on a brutal six-obstacle course that featured two new challenges: Walk the Plank and Spring Forward.

The L.A. competition also featured a new wrinkle: The top two finishers would challenge the Power Tower for a chance to directly advance to the national finals in Las Vegas.

That Power Tower contest did not disappoint, nor did the rest of the night. Eleven finishers conquered L.A. while displaying some incredible athleticism on a difficult course.

Here's a look at the obstacle courses, the list of finishers and times, the night's best highlights and a look ahead at what's next.

Obstacle Course List

1. Shrinking Steps

2. Walk the Plank

3. Spring Forward

4, Diamond Dash

5. Spring Hopper

6. Warped Wall/Mega Wall

List of Finishers and Times

1. Hunter Guerard (Power Tower winner and national finals berth): 1:34.03

2. David Campbell (Power Tower qualifier): 1:35.99

3. Kevin Bull: 1:37.26

4. Danell Leyva: 2:23.69

5. Davyon Hancox: 2:28.93

6. Scott Wilson: 2:41.25 (Scaled Mega Wall for $10,000)

7. David Alvarez: 2:59.71

8. Arnold Hernandez: 3:44.54

9. Brian Burk: 3:58.38

10. Brian Kretsch: 4:17.67

11. Jonah Bonner: 4:34.93

Guerard will skip the Los Angeles city finals and move on to the national finals in Las Vegas. The rest of the 11 finishers plus the 19 best competitors who did not complete the course will head back to Los Angeles on July 15.

Highlights

Guerard, David Campbell and Kevin Bull set themselves apart, as they all finished a full 46 seconds ahead of the field.

Guerard, who has made the national finals each of the past two years, barely edged out the 41-year-old Campbell (known as the Godfather) in the six-obstacle course. That would repeat itself in the Power Tower, a breathtaking race in which the two were neck-and-neck until the end:

Guerard won the berth, while Campbell will have to earn his way back to the national finals for the first time since 2017. Given how he performed Wednesday, he should be a heavy favorite to do so.

They both barely held off Bull, who put forth an excellent outing but fell just short of a Power Tower berth:

Elsewhere, one of the more inspiring stories of the night came courtesy of David Alvarez.

The Milwaukee native was separated from his two-year-old sister Wallyssa when the two were in foster care. Alvarez, then 13 years old, only has her pacifier in remembrance. He has not had luck finding his sister, and the search is still ongoing.

National television exposure to his story can only help, and he'll be back on television later this summer thanks to a successful course completion.

The fitness trainer wore a shirt with his sister's name and finished with the seventh-best time of the night despite nearly falling into the water midway through:

He overcame that obstacle, though, and moved on to the finals.

Brian Burk, an aerospace engineering student at Colorado State, made another inspiring run. The 19-year-old, who is on the autism spectrum, crushed the course by finishing under four minutes. Naturally, he was pretty happy:

To close out the more notable L.A. events, Scott Wilson proved to be the only contestant to successfully climb the Mega Wall:

Wilson finished sixth.

What's Next?

The rest of the American Ninja Warrior season will feature qualifying stops in Atlanta; Oklahoma City; Baltimore; Tacoma, Washington; and Cincinnati.

The contest will then circle back to Los Angeles for the city final rounds before making stops at the other five host cities. The three-day national final event in Las Vegas will begin airing August 26.

The Atlanta qualifier is next on the docket and will air Wednesday, June 5, at 8 p.m. ET.