Impellitteri ties record as all-time winngest US Bank Center climber, narrowly misses sub-5 club11/11/2016 Competing in his first-ever CF Climb Milwaukee, there wasn't too much of a question that reigning four-time Milwaukee Fight For Air champion Sal Impellitteri would fare well. Rather, the question was "How well?" For the first time in a stair race, the 35-year-old Milwaukee-area runner had the opportunity to race unimpeded—a regularity for most high-level competitive climbers. Impellitteri, whose previous wins at Milwaukee's US Bank Center have come in traffic during later start waves at the American Lung Association's yearly March FFA Climb, was the first climber of the night into the stairwell as part of the the CF Climb's elite start wave. He definitely made the most of the opportunity, scaling 47 stories and 981 steps of the US Bank Center in a personal-best 5:00-flat, which also goes down as the fifth-fastest time in building history. Only Springfield, Ill.'s Justin Stewart (4:50 in 2011) and Chicago's Jesse Berg (4:51 in 2011, 4:54 in 2009, and 4:59 in 2010) have finished faster. Impellitteri's finish also marks a 32-second improvement over his finish at last March's FFA climb and a 12-second improvement over his previous fastest time at the 2015 FFA. The win was also his fifth at any US Bank Center climb, increasing his men's record at the building, but tying former Chicago-area climber Bridget (Collins) Carlson for most wins by anyone in the building's history, male or female, not including firefighter competitions. Carlson, now retired from competitive stair climbing, won five straight CF climbs on the women's side between 2005 and 2009. Impellitteri also joins Berg as the only other person in building history to have notched four sub-6-minute climbs. The night was not bereft of any other spectacular feats, however. Robert Liking, a 14-year-old Chicago-area towerrunning prodigy finished second overall with a time of 5:46. He bested his previous US Bank Center PR of 6:22, which he set last March, and became the youngest person ever to reach the top in less than 6 minutes. The finish times for both Liking and 35-year-old Adam Bruss, a West Allis triathlete, went down as the 29th and 30th ever sub-6-minute performances in building history. Bruss' 5:50 was a 3-second improvement over his debut stair race at last year's CF Climb. One of the more under-the-radar achievements of the night was the 7:57 finish of 30-year-old West Allis firefighter Zeke Dombrowski. His time was by far the fastest full-gear firefighter finish of the night, and went down as the second-ever sub-8 full-gear finish at the CF Climb. While Dombrowski's effort was two seconds off his 2015 record of 7:55, it went down as his seventh total full-gear win in US Bank Center history. He has now won the past five straight CF full-gear climbs, as well as the past two full-gear competitions at the March FFA Climb. While the November CF Climb utilizes the same 47-story, 981-step stairwell for firefighters and non-firefighters alike, the March FFA climb uses a secondary 42-story, 899-step stairwell exclusively for firefighters. Dombrowski also owns the full-gear record in that stairwell; he became the first firefighter ever to go sub-7 there, as he shattered his own previous record of 7:37 with a 6:54 last March. While the men at this year's CF climb posted record-setting efforts, the women did as well, but not for as sterling of reasons. For the first time in US Bank Center history, no woman was able to crack the 8-minute mark, as 23-year-old Abbey Schneider of Madison came away as the women's winner with a time of 8:07. Schneider, whose personal-best effort decimated her own 12:15 finish at the 2015 CF Climb, held off 52-year-old Sheryl Leonard-Schneck, who finished second after reaching the top in 8:10. With a 7:57 finish at the 2015 CF Climb, Leonard-Schneck held the prior dubious distinction of having achieved the slowest win in US Bank Center history. The longtime Wauwatosa multisport athlete remains in a three-way tie for third place with two US Bank Center women's victories alongside Milwaukee-area Spartan Pro Becca Clifford and Chicago-area runner Liz Ruvalcaba. The US Bank Center's three-person team record also fell at this year's CF Climb, as not simply one, but two teams eclipsed the event's previous three-person team average record of 7:01. The Stair Club Milwaukee men's team of Impellitteri, Bruss, and Menomonee Falls' Josh Jackett, 36, who finished in 7:03, totaled a composite 17:53 for a three-person average of 5:58. Led by Liking, the second place Tower Racing Chicago team—which was rounded out by Carpentersville, Ill.'s Josh Duncan (6:27), 39, and Westchester, Ill.'s David Hanley (6:55), 43—totaled 19:08, a three-person average of 6:23. In total, CF Climb Milwaukee—formerly known as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's Climbing For A Cure—raised more than $55,000 to benefit the Wisconsin Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's efforts to cure Cystic Fibrosis. A total of 241 participants scaled the steps to the top of the 47-story US Bank Center, a decrease from 260 in 2015. Full results can be found HERE. A full list of US Bank Center climb achievements can be found HERE.
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