Best of: Chapman students put athletic prowess to the test in ‘Wipeout’

Chapman senior Andrea Torres (right) and alumnus Simon Duyungan (left) competed in a May 6 episode of “Wipeout” — a television game show where players run across a difficult obstacle course. Photo courtesy of Torres

In the fall, Chapman senior Andrea Torres and alumnus Simon Duyungan spent many afternoons in the pool before Duyungan transferred to Arizona State University (ASU) after two years. They had other ideas, however, that didn’t involve just relaxing and getting a tan.

The two would set up floaties on the water, running across them to prepare for the obstacles in their upcoming appearance on the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) series “Wipeout.” 

In early August, Torres, a senior business administration and communication studies double major, was scrolling through Instagram. She saw a former member of Chapman’s Kappa Alpha Theta sorority working for the casting company for “Wipeout.” The show announced they were taking applications to appear on the show and Torres decided to reach out. 

“I was coming out of quarantine, back in Orange, tired of doing nothing,” Torres said. “So I signed myself up.” 

The initial application asked Torres who she would take on the show as her partner. The decision was easy: Duyungan, her friend since her sophomore year at Chapman and now a student at ASU. 

The catch, however: Torres submitted their application without telling Duyungan. So when the decision came back that they’d been selected to interview, a brief moment of confusion gave way to intense excitement. 

“Usually, I don’t answer numbers that I don’t have in my phone,” Duyungan said about receiving a call from the show. “But it seemed like a fun experience. I was hyped about it.”

Upon applying, Torres and Duyungan took part in a series of phone and Zoom interviews with the show’s casting company and its producers to assess how entertaining they’d be as television personalities. 

“For the Zoom interview, they highly recommended that you wore costumes. Simon and I went to Target and found some pajamas in the boys’ section that said ‘Hustle, Sleep, Repeat,’” Torres said. “When we began filming, they asked us if we wanted (our team name) to be ‘Hustle, Sleep, Eat, Repeat,’ and that became our new battle cry.

Eventually, the duo was selected to participate in the show, leading them to design a training regimen — involving the pool obstacle courses — to prepare for their appearance on a May 6 episode, which was shot Nov. 5.

“After we made it, we got pretty serious about working out,” Torres said. “We ran three times a week and we lifted weights, because we knew that we needed upper-body strength.”

Both Torres and Duyungan grew up playing sports, which they felt helped them in training for and appearing on the show. Torres played soccer for 14 years while Duyungan found himself more frequently in the gym and the pool.

“I grew up in competitive gymnastics, and I was a diver,” Duyungan said. “Those two sports require a lot of balance, core strength and precision, and I think (Torres) and I are pretty athletic and agile.” 

In the May 6 episode, the pair placed a fast enough time through the course to qualify for a final round. They darted over the show’s big red balls in the first round, scoring the second-quickest time among competitors. They improved in the second round, crossing the finish line first in an obstacle course; Duyungan stepped adeptly to avoid falling off rotating platforms and avoided swinging arms designed to knock contestants into an icy pool below. 

“I didn’t really think it was that hard,” Duyungan said. “It was kind of fun and I didn’t want to get wet.”

While the experience wasn’t quite the same for Torres, her persistence netted the team a bid into the final round: “The Wipeout Zone.” But the week before filming the episode’s finale in mid-December, Torres and Duyngan were exposed to COVID-19 and the producers nixed them from the show. 

“They probably would’ve won,” said Haley Saich, Torres’ roommate. “After looking at the people and the course, they did so well in the first two courses that I feel like they had a good shot at winning.”

While the pair wasn’t able to complete the entire competition this time around, Torres said the show reached out to them about a possible redemption episode, an opportunity that she hopes to take.

“Depending on when (the redemption episode) is, I'll probably forget how sore I was and want to do it,” Torres said. “I don’t regret doing it at all. It was one of the most fun things ever.”