4 Big Brother 26 players who we would like to see on MTV’s The Challenge

Makensy Manbeck

Houston product Makensy Manbeck played a strong game throughout Big Brother 26 as the runner-up to winner Chelsie Banham, winning herself $75,000 after racking up an impressive 11 competition wins in her 90 days in the house.

Makensy, a 22-year-old construction project engineer, captured three HoHs (Day 67, Week 11, Day 90), five PoVs (Day 21, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12), and had three wins in the AI Arena en route to making it to the Final 2 against her game-long ally.

She became the first Houseguest in BB history to ever win the “OTEV” competition in the first round, was the first female contestant to ever win the final HoH in a decade, along with Chelsie, became the first two women to make the Final 2 in 13 years, and is the only player to never receive a vote to win or be evicted in the show’s 26-season history.

So why would Makensy, a resident of Pearland, Texas, be a great choice for The Challenge? Like Matt, Mackensy had her fair share of critics, something the MTV franchise loves as past BB alums like Paulie Calafiore and Josh Martinez have found out the hard way.

And also like Matt, the 6-foot-1 Mackensy has the athletic background and size needed to deal with the more physical challenges on the MTV show.

Makensy was an All-State volleyball star at Friendswood High School in Friendswood, Texas where as a senior she helped lead the Mustangs to the Class 5A semis in 2019, finishing the season with 474 kills and 127 blocks as a middle blocker.

She was good enough to earn a scholarship in 2020 to play at Division I Houston Baptist University—now Houston Christian University—but an injury prevented Makensy from playing a match in college. She then transferred to Texas A&M University in College Station where she earned a degree in engineering and graduated in August 2023.