Titan Spotlight: Cassidy Shepherd ’17

TITAN SPOTLIGHT ALL-AMERICAN NINJA TITAN TRAINING HELPS ALUMNA FULFILL LONGTIME DREAM

By NATHAN LaRICCIA

Ever since she was a middle schooler, Cassidy Shepherd ’17 had dreams of becoming a ninja. Well, an American Ninja Warrior (ANW), that is.

After spending much of her life in some form of competition, the fourtime All American and eight-time NCAA Nationals qualifying pole vaulter realized that after college, she needed to keep training for something and work towards a goal. And that goal: NBC’s hit obstacle course competition show.

“I could not let that part of my character go. My success as a Titan led to me wanting to compete on ANW because I was not ready to be done competing,” said Cassidy, one of the most decorated student-athletes in Westminster’s history. “It made me hungry for more.”

Since ANW was always in the back of her mind, Cassidy made the decision to give it shot and started training. She wound up competing in two ANW’s City Qualifiers: Season 10 in Miami (2018) and most recently on Season 11 in Atlanta (2019), which will air in June.

Since last year’s contest, Cassidy has been competing in various ninja leagues, gaining more obstacle experience. Training hard is something that comes naturally to her, especially when competing on a national level.

For every season she was at Westminster, she competed on the biggest stage possible as an NCAA Division III pole vaulter. That’s kind of a big deal, because she’s only the second Titan track & field athlete—male or female—ever to do that. Each track & field athlete has eight chances in their college career to qualify for Nationals. Cassidy was a perfect 8-for-8.

Even though pole vaulting at Nationals and being a ninja warrior on national television are entirely different, Cassidy found similarities.

“I was competing with some of the best competitors around and I had to be on top of my game. They are different experiences, but there was still an element of pressure in both,” she said.

Cassidy said Westminster is where she learned how to focus and deal with those moments of pressure—and she has applied that same mental toughness in her ANW competitions.

“In college, you had three attempts at each height for pole vaulting and you had to make every jump count,” she said. “When you got to your last attempt, you had to give it everything and leave it all out there on that runway. Now when I step up to ANW course, I have one shot. I have to make it count and have to leave it all there. I have to give it my all.” S