ZELIENOPLE — The playground at Zelienople Community Park was transformed into a series of “American Ninja Warrior”-style challenges for the fittest and most daring youngsters, for the annual Ultimate Zelie Challenge, held Sunday morning, Aug. 23.

The challenge is one of many youth sports events organized throughout the year by Get Fit Families, a Butler County organization, which primarily promotes running, swimming, and triathlon events throughout Western Pennsylvania.

This year marks the 12th year for the challenge, which typically draws around 100 participants, according to the event’s founder, Zachary Baker.

“Normally, we have anywhere between 50 and 100 that come out to the event each year,” Baker said. “We’ve been pretty popular over the last 12 years, but we're still trying to grow and always bring in more people.”

The obstacles used for the challenge are playground equipment, and like on American Ninja Warrior, the goal is to maneuver the course as fast as possible. Challengers were divided into age groups, each of which were assigned to a different section of the playground.

“Each obstacle course utilizes a different playground, which caters to the different kids’ and adults’ skill sets,” Baker said. “As the kids get older, they move on to a different playground to get harder and harder obstacles.”

While nearly all of the challengers are typically children, Baker says the challenge is also open to adults.

“We have an obstacle course for the adults as well, for any parents that would want to do it,” Baker said.

The Ultimate Challenge was preceded by an all-ages obstacle course race around the community park, which is brand-new for this year. The race consisted of a one-mile run around the park with racers having to traverse various obstacles, including monkey bars, a slip-n-slide and hurdles, among others.

“They had a bucket carry. They had a tire flip,” said Joella Baker, president of Get Fit Families. “They had a mini-obstacle course with hurdles and jumping through buckets. They had to drag boat anchors through the field, and then they had to run through the creek.”