Reality show winner gets 10 years for enticing underage girl to cross state lines for sex

CAMDEN, NJ– A former winner of the reality show “American Ninja Warrior” has been sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison for enticing an underage girl to travel across state lines so they could have sex.

Andrew Drechsel, 35, of Saint Cloud, Florida, will also serve 15 years of supervised release once he completes his sentence and must pay $100,000 in restitution to the victim under the 121-month sentence imposed Wednesday in Camden. Drechsel pleaded guilty in June 2023 to both the enticement charge and the possession of child sexual abuse material charge.

Drechsel, who won Season 11 of the NBC television show in 2019, was living in Hamden, Connecticut, at the time, while the victim lived in New Jersey. The encounters between him and the girl took place between 2014 and 2019, prosecutors said, with the girl sometimes going to Connecticut and Drechsel going to New Jersey at other times.

Drechsel told authorities he met the victim in 2014 after an “American Ninja Warrior” contestant event, where they exchanged numbers and began texting. She was 14 at the time; he was in his mid-twenties.