ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A UNM student is representing New Mexico on a national stage – she is competing on season 16 of “American Ninja Warrior.”

Out of a pool of 75,000 people who applied to be on the show, 19-year-old Ixchel Valentino was one of over 100 selected to actually compete.

Valentino calls herself “the Nerdy Ninja.” When she’s not hanging, flying, or doing flips while training at Ninja Force Gym, she spends time with robots.

“I’ve been competing in robotics since I was five years old,” she said. “Doing anything and everything from programming to building to promoting our teams.”

Valentino says competing in both events are pretty similar.

“Competing in both athletics and academics, I’ve found that the mindset for both aspects of, I guess nerdy and athletic is very, very common. You have to find that middle ground for your mindset to be able to get in the game mode, you have to block out all the distractions and stay super focused,” she said.

For Valentino, the sky is the limit – even when you have a fear of heights.

“I have like this fight or flight kind of reflex. And I’m so scared. I just, I want to, like, crawl back down,” she said.

She uses that fear as fuel.

“I can use that fight or flight as fuel. I can use it as more energy to compete. And it kind of pushes me to do things that I wouldn’t normally be comfortable doing if it wasn’t in a competition setting,” Valentino said.

She’s hoping to beat the odds, no matter how stacked they are.

“Trying to get on from that 75,000 pool, I guess you get a 0.26% chance of getting on. That is like crazy,” Valentino said.