Jackson Twait is a college student from Hudson, Iowa. He calls himself the Cat Daddy, because he owns a pet cat named Hash Brown.
Jackson's first cat, Hades.
American Ninja Warrior 11[]
Jackson first competed in Cincinnati as a 21-year-old rookie. He revealed that his cat at the time was named Hades. Twait put up a sensational run on the course, breezing through all six obstacles and completing the course with the 2nd fastest time, With this time, he got the opportunity to face off against veteran Ethan Swanson on the Power Tower. Twait looked strong on for the most part, but started to hesitate a bit, causing Swanson to gain the edge. Twait tried to make a last-ditch leap at the final platform, but failed and tumbled off inches away as Swanson won the race.
Jackson then competed in the Cincinnati Finals. However, after an amazing rookie debut in Qualifying, he failed the third obstacle, the Spinning Bridge, after second-guessing his approach and skimming the water at the end. In a shocking end to his rookie season, he placed 28th overall and did not move on to the national finals.
American Ninja Warrior 12[]
Jackson returned for Season 12 as a member of Roo Yori's team. He revealed devastating information that his cat, Hades, ran away. However, he got a new cat named Hash Brown (his current cat). His run in the Qualifying round was digested, but he managed to finish with the 3rd fastest time, just barely missing out on the Power Tower. In the Semifinals, his run was digested again, but it was shown that he made it to the Spider Trap before losing traction and failing. Still, he placed 6th overall- the best result out of all of the non-finishers- and advanced to the finals. In the finals, Jackson was the first to run. Despite a promising start on the first two obstacles, he was the first of many to fail the third obstacle, Falling Shelves, ending his season.
American Ninja Warrior 13[]
Jackson returned to compete in the last qualifying episode. Once again, he managed to clear the qualifying course, this time in 5th place. He also made it up the Mega Wall, winning $10,000. He later competed in the second semifinals episode. His run was digested, but it was shown that he was one of many to fail Padlock. His time to the obstacle was good enough to move on to the Las Vegas national finals for the first time, as he placed 8th in the Top 15. Unfortunately, he was exposed to COVID-19 in Las Vegas and he was forced to withdraw from the competition, getting replaced by Will Schlageter.
American Ninja Warrior 14[]
Jackson returned to compete in the third qualifying episode. His run was once again digested, but it was shown that he failed on the fifth obstacle, Salmon Roll; this was the first time that he failed on a qualifying course. His still moved on the semifinals, placing 16th in the Top 30. He later competed in the third semifinals episode. After a strong run through the first eight obstacles, he decided to go for the risky Diving Boards at Split Decision. Twait started out decently but tripped on the third board. However, when it looked like he would have failed, he grabbed the board as hard as he could and barely kept himself from being thrown into the water. After holding on, he then sat on the board, pulled himself upright, and jumped over the final wall, effectively clearing the obstacle. He then got revenge on the Spider Trap, which took him out in American Ninja Warrior 12, and cleared his first semifinals course with the second best time. With his time, he earned himself another trip to the Power Tower, this time racing for the Safety Pass against his friend Levi Enright. Twait had a strong lead, but he had a slight stumble on the transition to the pole, while Enright had a smoother transition. While Twait did his best to catch up, he just barely lost the race and missed out on getting the Safety Pass.
Jackson finally competed in the first episode of Stage One after missing out the past three seasons due to various reasons. On Stage One, he cut it close, finishing with .78 seconds left on the clock and the slowest time out of all of the Stage One finishers.
Prior to his run on Stage Two, Jackson revealed that he had a rather unorthodox way of preparing for the National Finals, and Stage Two in particular: eating salsa. Every time he completed an obstacle in practice, he would eat a mouthful of salsa, progressively increasing the level of spiciness as he completed more obstacles. He believed that if he could run a course while battling the heat of the salsa, he could run Stage Two while battling the fire from the pyrotechnics.
Despite his enthusiastic start to his run, he shockingly failed the first obstacle, the Striding Steps after began leaning to the right and missed the rope.
American Ninja Warrior 15[]
Jackson returned to compete in the fifth qualifying round. He was going fast, in an attempt to get another shot at the Mega Wall, but he rushed and failed Ring the Bells, once again failing the fifth obstacle in qualifying. Luckily this was enough for him to advance to the semifinals as he placed 6th overall in the top 12.
He later competed in the first semifinal episode. He raced another top competitor, Nate Hansen, and it was tight for most of the race. But Nate then got caught up on Slingshot, allowing Jackson to pull through and hit the buzzer, advancing to the national finals for the third straight season. Nate also advanced to Vegas via the top two non-winners.
On Stage One, Jackson had a close call on The Gambler, but was able to recover and he eventually finished with 22.20 seconds left, heading to Stage Two with much more time left than last season. On Stage Two he was matched up against Nacssa Garemore. Nacssa was ahead for all of the race and easily won, while Jackson ended up falling on the Epic Air Surfer, ending his season.
American Ninja Warrior 16[]
Jackson was selected to compete in American Ninja Warrior 16, where he was shown in the third qualifying episode. He went fast once again, and this time it proved to be effective as he had cleared the qualifier with in 0.3 seconds to spare to attempt the Mega Wall once again. Jackson touched the very top of the wall, but it wasn't enough, and he failed to win the Mega Wall prize of $20,000. His fast pace placed him 2nd in that qualifier even getting Akbar Gbaja-Biamila to freak out when he was falling back down the wall.
He raced his friend Marquez Green in the semifinals. Jackson was behind at first, but took the lead on the Wingnuts, and eventually completed the course, once again advancing to the national finals, while Marquez failed the Spin Hopper.
At the national finals, his run on Stage One was digested, but he finished for the third consecutive season, this time doing so with 46.93 seconds left, which was the fifth fastest time of Stage One. On Stage Two, he raced against Cal Plohoros. Cal cleared the course faster than him and lost the race as a result. But he ended up as one of top 4 non-winners and later raced against Max Feinberg in the non-winner runoff. That race was pretty back and forth until Max failed on the reverse blind grab of the Falling Shelves while Jackson cleared and advanced to Stage Three for the first time in his career. On Stage Three, he had slight trouble on Stalactites, before going on the new Pizza Party, ending his best season to date.
Trivia[]
- Jackson is the second rookie competitor to face off at the Power Tower, after Conor Galvin in ANW 11's Baltimore qualifiers.
- Jackson held the record for the longest Stage One clear in American Ninja Warrior history. In other words, out of everyone who has ever cleared Stage One, he took the longest to do so; his run on American Ninja Warrior 14 lasted 169.22 seconds (2:49.22) before he reached the buzzer.
- Joe Meissner later broke his record by a mere .04 seconds during his Stage One run during American Ninja Warrior 16.
- He is the second Iowa ninja to make it to Stage Three after Tyler Smith in American Ninja Warrior 11.
- Jackson Twait, along with Sean Bryan, are the first to conquer Stage Two twice in the same night (once during the regular competition and during the runoffs).
- During his Stage Three run in American Ninja Warrior 16, it was shown by his YouTube channel (and during the actual run) that he got yelled at by the producer because he grabbed the top (the crust) of that first pizza slice and had to correct it.
American Ninja Warrior Results[]
| ANW | # | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Failed Striding Steps (Stage Two) | ||
| 15 | Failed Epic Air Surfer (Stage Two) | ||
| 16 | Failed Pizza Party (Stage Three) | Finished Stage Two (not fast enough to win his heat) but moved onto to Stage Three due to winning a runoff race. |