League News · 2026 Season

Powerhouse Rookies to Watch in 2026

The 2026 Grid League rookie class did not come from one place. The league signed a World Champion strongman, an Olympic-lifting world record holder, a Cirque du Soleil acrobat, and a four-time American Ninja Warrior, and the list runs well past that.

The United Grid League runs on specialists. Two teams line up on parallel lanes of a playing surface called the Grid, each lane split into four quadrants with a rig running down the center, and they race head to head through a set of strength and gymnastics tests. Players work in male and female pairs, one moving at a time, and a coach spends the match deploying the right player for the right job the way a manager runs a pitching staff. The night ends with the Sprint Relay, the closing race where the whole roster empties the tank.

That structure rewards a different player than the all-around model most fitness fans know, and the 2026 newcomers each fill a specific hole. Here are the players worth watching.

A Grid roster does not need ten players who are good at everything. It needs a heavy barbell that never misses, a gymnast who flies through the rig, and a closer who can run.

Kyra Milligan, Southwest Florida Sharks. Milligan is a two-time CrossFit Games athlete, including a 2026 qualification, and her 22nd-place individual finish at the 2024 Games put her among the best in that sport. The Utah native is a former gymnast and basketball player who now trains under PRVN in Nashville. She joins the Southwest Florida Sharks for her first Grid League season as one of the most decorated rookies in the class.

Bailey Meraviglia, New York Wolves. Meraviglia took second at the 2015 CrossFit Games as a team competitor with CrossFit Milford. She reached the Atlantic Regional as an individual in 2017 and 2018, and most recently finished 147th worldwide in the 2025 Open to qualify for Semifinals. She co-owns and head-coaches Stroud CrossFit in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and joins the New York Wolves for their inaugural season.

Kristin Pope, Carolina Flight. Pope is a Team USA weightlifter and an IFBB Pro Fitness athlete who finished second at the 2024 Legion Sports Fest Pro. At 63 kilograms she ranked sixth in the country while training under Travis Mash, John Coffee, and Danny Camargo. Before the platform she won 13 Georgia state gymnastics titles and reached Level 10, until a hip avulsion fracture and four ankle surgeries ended her tumbling. She runs a coaching business called Dynamic Pursuit and joins the Carolina Flight for the team’s first season.

Halei Jo Arroyo, Carolina Flight. Arroyo is a four-time American Ninja Warrior competitor and a NASM-certified trainer based in Florida who has trained in weightlifting, gymnastics, and Muay Thai. She recently became a mother for the first time. She joins the Carolina Flight as part of the team’s debut roster.

Nathan Tsuji, Tampa Bay Brigade. Tsuji is an eight-time All-American gymnast who joined Cirque du Soleil after he retired from college competition. He helped create a show and still performs in it as the character Echo, working as a handbalancer and acrobat. He started gymnastics at age three in Santa Cruz, California, and joins the Tampa Bay Brigade for his first Grid League season. Few players in the league can match what he does upside down.

Gavin D’Amato, Atlanta Wild. D’Amato is the first wrestler in Tunkhannock history to reach a PIAA state final, where he finished as the 2020 Class 2A runner-up at 145 pounds. He was a two-time Wyoming Valley Conference champion and a three-time District 2 champion before signing with Division II Pitt-Johnstown. His powerlifting debut produced a 542.5 kilogram total and a first-place finish. He joins the Atlanta Wild for his first Grid League season.

Zack McCarley, South Beach Palms. McCarley is a World Champion strongman who won the 90 kilogram world title in 2015 and carries six national championships. He has competed since 2006, and before strongman he wrestled as an NCWA All-American. He coaches out of Dungeon Strength RX in Auburn, Washington, and joins the South Beach Palms for his first Grid League season. When a race comes down to who can move the most load without slowing down, this is the player a coach wants on the Grid.

Katrina Rasmussen, South Beach Palms. Rasmussen holds a Masters world record in Olympic weightlifting, set in Puerto Rico in 2022, and she has stacked state and national records since she committed to the lifts in 2021. She walked into a CrossFit gym postpartum and qualified for the 2026 CrossFit Games in the 35 to 39 division. She gives the Palms a second barbell threat with a competition engine to match.

Charlie Bubenik, Las Vegas Venom. Bubenik is a Liberty University club gymnast and a former Liberty cheerleader. She joined the Liberty Flames cheer roster in 2023-24, then debuted with the club gymnastics team in 2024-25 during her senior year. She brings a tumbling and gymnastics base to the Las Vegas Venom for her first Grid League season.

Kara Petruzzelli, New York Wolves. Petruzzelli co-owns Seven Victory Fitness Collective in Greenville, South Carolina, and works as a registered dietitian in performance nutrition. She has competed at CrossFit Semifinals and Strongman Nationals, a rare combination that fits the Grid better than almost anywhere else. She joins the Wolves for their first season with a reputation for composure under fatigue.

Alexia Perez-Miviere, Fort Lauderdale Lions. Perez-Miviere is a French strength specialist out of Mably who competed at the 2024 CrossFit Quarterfinals for Europe and carries a competition record on OpenPowerlifting. At 5 foot 7 and 179 pounds, she is the first European player on the Fort Lauderdale Lions.

Mikail Jenkins, Carolina Flight. Jenkins is a bodyweight specialist out of CrossFit Hyperion in Utah and an American Ninja Warrior Season 11 competitor. She holds an ACSM certification and a CrossFit Level 2, runs an online coaching business, and was featured in the 2021 docu-series Adrenaline: Athlete Profile. On a rig-heavy race, she is exactly the kind of player who can put a lane out of reach.

Nicky Rodgers, Palm Beach Breakers. Rodgers is one of the youngest players in the league at 21 and a rising CrossFit competitor who placed 38th at the 2025 NorCal Classic before competing at the 2026 Torian Pro Semifinal in Brisbane, Australia. He joins the Palm Beach Breakers for his first Grid League season with room to grow into one of the league’s better engines.

Up Next

Thirteen players, almost as many backgrounds, and one season to prove the bet. The teams that drafted them are betting a Cirque acrobat or a world-record lifter can learn to race on the Grid faster than a generalist can learn to do what they already do. We find out when the rep counters start.

The Grid League season continues in Lakeland, Florida on Saturday, June 20, the next chance to see this rookie class on the Grid.

Have a question? Email us at staff@unitedgridleague.com