Melissa Manzer was a Saint while at Siena, playing on the women’s basketball team before graduating in 2008. This summer, she will be known across America as a Spartan, competing on an new NBC team obstacle course competition.
“Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge” builds on the popularity of the “American Ninja Warrior” series by pitting teams of athletes against each other across a grueling obstacle course.
Ms. Manzer’s team includes her fiancé, Linda Larsen, her brother Jared Manzer, and Brendan Rabadi, a member of Ms. Manzer’s gym who initially convinced her to submit an application to NBC.
Each four-member team (two women and two men) is joined on the course by an “elite Spartan racer” and together they compete against other teams and the obstacles along the course.
The program, produced by the team that developed the summertime hit series “American Ninja Warrior” on NBC, is inspired by Spartan Races — combination race and obstacle courses — held around the world.
“They call it the hardest race ever created,” Ms. Manzer said.
Though no one on Ms. Manzer’s team had ever competed in a Spartan Race, all four team members are committed athletes. “I thought there’d be a one-in-a-million chance we’d be chosen,” she said, when Mr. Rabadi encouraged her to submit an application last year for the brand-new show. They are the only team from upstate New York in the national competition.
After graduating from Siena College, Ms. Manzer went on to play basketball professionally for two years overseas before opening a gym, CrossFit Round Lake, with business partner Samuel Axten.
“Our gym is designed to provide whole-body exercise to everyone from beginners to elite athletes,” Ms. Manzer said. “We believe working together toward a fitness goal helps everyone. The teamwork needed for the Spartan show took that to the extreme.”
She credited her time at Siena with helping to cement a strong work ethic and providing her with the skills to be a successful business owner. “I’m thrilled to be a Spartan competitor, but I will always be proud of my time as a Siena Saint,” she said.
NBC’s “Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge” debuts this summer on Channel 13. The first two episodes are on Mondays, June 13 and 20 at 10 p.m., before moving to a regular timeslot of 9 p.m. Thursdays beginning June 23.
Thirty-five teams will compete against each other over the course of the season to win the title and $250,000 in prize money. In each episode, six teams compete against each other, with the winners going on to a finals competition.
