Impellitteri wins record 4th US Bank Center climb; Liking, Grenetier join MKE FFA's 7-climb club3/20/2016 For the fourth straight year in the eight-year history of the Milwaukee Fight For Air Climb, no one scaled their way to the top of the US Bank Center's 47 stories faster than Sal Impellitteri. The 35-year-old Milwaukee-area runner extended his already-record FFA winning streak by blistering his way up the building's 981 steps in 5:32 at this year's event, which was held by the American Lung Association in Wisconsin on Saturday, March 19. With the win, Impellitteri broke a three-way tie for the most combined men's stair race wins in Milwaukee, also including stair climbs held at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's Climbing For A Cure event, which is held each November, also at the US Bank Center. He had been tied at three wins apiece with longtime Chicago-area competitive stair climbers Jesse Berg and Eric Leninger. Berg's wins have all come at the CFF's November climb (2009, 2010, 2013), while Leninger's have been split between the CFF climb (2008, 2014) and the March FFA climb (2010). Impellitteri now trails only former Chicago-area climber Bridget (Collins) Carlson by one for most wins by anyone in the building's history, not including firefighter competitions. Carlson, now retired from competitive stair climbing, won five straight CFF climbs on the women's side between 2005 and 2009. His finish this year ranks as his second-fastest, 20 seconds off the FFA event-record 5:12 he set last year, and also makes him the sixth person to notch three sub-6-minute climbs in the building's history, joining Berg, Leninger, Vermont's Tim Van Orden, Minneapolis-area climber Jason Larson, and Chicago-turned-Denver-area climber Brady Renshaw. As if Impellitteri's performance wasn't record-setting enough for one event, the climb's second-place finisher, Chicago-area towerrunning wunderkind Robert Liking, 13, blazed his way to the top in 6:22, becoming the youngest person in the building's history to notch a sub-7-minute climb. He clocked in under 7:00 not simply once, but rather three times en route to a seven-climb, first-place finish at the event's Ultimate Climb, where participants climb the entirety of the building's steps as many times as possible in a one-hour span. Ultimate Climbers' first climb times are ranked among single climb participants' climb times in the overall standings. Liking's composite Ultimate Climb time of 49:49 (6:22, 6:36, 6:55, 7:09, 7:33, 7:34, 7:40), ranks third-fastest in the event's history, and is also the third sub-50-minute, seven-climb cumulative total ever. Prior to this year, only six people had ever completed seven climbs at the US Bank Center. However, between Liking and also second-place Ultimate Climb finisher Jean-Roch Grenetier, 52, that number moved to eight. Grenetier finished with a cumulative total of 56:28 (6:53, 7:45, 8:11, 7:24, 8:33, 8:15, 9:27), checking into the record books approximately two minutes behind a two-way tie between Chicago-area climber Hal Carlson (2010) and Milwaukee-area runner-turned-cyclist Holly LaVesser (2014) at 54:19. LaVesser, 34, finished the 2016 FFA first among women in both the fastest climb category as well as the Ultimate Climb. She was the only woman to finish in less than 8:00 this year, and was the only woman to legitimately complete six climbs within the Ultimate Climb's hour-long window. Her six climbs totaled 47:01 (7:20, 7:44, 7:49, 8:07, 8:03, 7:58). In her third year competing in the FFA's Ultimate Climb, it was also LaVesser's third straight with at least six climbs. One additional individual record to fall at this year's climb was that of the full-gear firefighter climb. While the FFA utilizes a secondary 42-story, 899-step stairwell for the firefighters, West Allis FD's Zeke Dombrowski, 29, shattered that stairwell's record, clocking in at a ridiculous 6:54 in 60-lbs. of full firefighter gear. He broke his own record of 7:37 set at the 2015 FFA. The win was also the former pro soccer player and sub-3-hour-marathoner's sixth full-gear win between both Milwaukee climb events, also a record. Dombrowski has now won the past two FFA full-gear climbs, as well as the past four straight full-gear competitions at the CFF November climb, which utilizes the same 981-step stairwell both events do for all other climbers. The American Lung Association In Wisconsin advertises its Milwaukee Fight For Air Climb as the most successful of all of the ALA's stair climbing fundraising events in the entire country, both in terms of total participation and money raised for its programs. This year, a total of 2,433 participants made their way up to the top of the US Bank Center at the climb, with the event raising more than $700,000. Full results can be found HERE. For a list of all US Bank Center stair climbing records and achievements, click HERE.
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