Bruss snaps another Impellitteri streak, Liking sets high standard in revamped Ultimate Climb, LaVesser continues dominance of women's fieldStreaks are made to be broken, and Adam Bruss continued playing the role of the breaker during the Saturday, March 10, Milwaukee Fight For Air Climb.
Making his way to the top of the 47-story, 981-step stairwell of the US Bank Center in 5:33 for the overall win, Bruss snapped Stair Club Milwaukee teammate Sal Impellitteri's 5-year single-climb win streak at the event. It was Bruss' second straight win at the building, having defeated Impellitteri during November's CF Climb Milwaukee, ending Impellitteri's then personal six-climb win streak at the building across both stair climb events. Impellitteri, now almost a year separated from having stepped back from competitive running and constant training, still finished fifth overall with a time of 6:17, his slowest among seven stair climbs at the building dating back to his 6:02 debut in 2013. Gunning for Illinois towerrunner Justin Stewart's 2011 building record of 4:50 during the past few years, Impellitteri came closer than anyone in recent memory, and certainly faster than anyone from Wisconsin, with finishes of 5:00-flat at 2016's CF Climb Milwaukee and an event-record 5:02 at 2017's Milwaukee Fight For Air Climb. Stewart and Chicago towerrunner Jesse Berg are the only two people in the post-2002 records era with finishes faster than Impellitteri's fastest. As for Bruss, among his five appearances in US Bank Center stair races, his finish at Saturday's climb was his second fastest to his 5:19 personal-best at last November's win. Primarily a triathlete, Bruss has taken his stair climbing out of town in recent months, however. In his first road appearance last December, he finished fourth at Oklahoma City's three-building, up-plus-down Little Willie's Triple Dog Dare. Then, last month he helped lead Stair Club Milwaukee to victory at the Oakbrook Terrace Fight For Air Climb in suburban Chicago. Saturday's top five male finishers were in part rounded out by fellow Stair Club Milwaukee teammates: newcomer Sean Finnigan, who dipped sub-6 with a 5:57 second-place finish in his stair race debut, and veteran Jean-Roch Grenetier, whose third-place time of 6:04 was a personal best. The finish continued a personal improvement streak for Grenetier, having clocked in at 6:53 at the 2016 FFA, 6:51 at 2016 CF Climb, 6:33 at the 2017 FFA, and 6:23 at the 2017 CF Climb. Carpentersville, Ill., towerrunner Josh Duncan finished fourth with a time of 6:10 up the US Bank Center's stairwell. Seven days earlier, Duncan tied for first place with 52 climbs up Salt Lake City's 24-story Wells Fargo Center stairwell during the OutClimb Cancer Challenge's six-hour stair climb. His total tied the event record for total climbs, which he set the year before. Registered for this year's Milwaukee Fight For Air Climb "Ultimate Climb" power hour, Duncan was among a group of participants taking part in what ended up being a dual-climb of sorts: participating in a single climb and then the Ultimate Climb. Ultimate Climb participants are given the opportunity to scale the building's stairs as many times as they can or want for one hour, riding the elevator back down after each climb. However, this year, due to a long-term freight elevator maintenance project, only one of the building's two freight elevators were available for participants to travel back from the US Bank Center's observatory deck to the Clybourn level start line. With only one elevator available, Ultimate Climb participants would likely lose out on achieving as many climbs as possible thanks to likely long waits to get back downstairs. As a solution to the issue, Milwaukee Fight For Air Climb organizers received permission from US Bank Center officials to move the Ultimate Climb to the 42-story, 899-step south stairwell, where the FFA's full-gear firefighter climb takes place, which also happened to be a suggestion some participants had made in the past regardless of the elevator situation. An added benefit was that stairwell, which starts at the Galleria level, ends on a floor with access to six express elevators that lead right back down to outside the Galleria level stairwell. A schedule conflict between the Ultimate Climb and the firefighter climb would not be an issue, thanks to the Ultimate Climb's 6:30 a.m. start time and the firefighter climb's 10 a.m. start time. The only potential issue was that of results how would be handled, as the first rep climb times of Ultimate Climbers results have traditionally been included among the single climb times of all participants for team and age group awards purposes, which would be a problem since a 42-story first climb isn't on par with a 47-story climb. As a solution to that issue, FFA organizers received permission from building officials to hold a limited-space, 6:15 a.m. single-climb start wave--dubbed "Wave 0"—in the traditional 47-story stairwell for interested Ultimate Climb participants. Of the approximately 140 total Ultimate Climbers, a total of 26 participated in Wave 0. After his 6:10 single-climb finish in the 47-story stairwell, Duncan finished second place among all men with eight total climbs totaling 51:31 up the 42-story south stairwell. He was among the nine people in the Ultimate Climb's previous nine-year history to notch an event-record seven climbs in the 47-story stairwell. Finishing first in this year's shorter stairwell was 15-year-old Chicago-area high school runner and somehow already longtime and still towerrunning prodigy Bob Liking, who spent 53:08 in the stairwell across an astounding total of nine climbs. The only person to reach nine climbs on the day, last year Liking set the 47-story Ultimate Climb record for fastest seven-climb performance (47:32). Making his nine-climb effort even more impressive, Liking ran a 4:34 in a 1,600-meter race at a track meet the day beforehand, and didn't arrive to Milwaukee with his family until 12:30 a.m. in advance of a 6:30 a.m. Ultimate Climb start time. Of his nine climbs, he completed each of his first five in less than six minutes. While Liking didn't take part in Wave 0, two-time FFA defending women's single-climb and Ultimate Climb champion Holly LaVesser did. As if LaVesser's dominance in each category wasn't enough the past two years, she outdid herself this year. During her Wave 0 single-climb, LaVesser blazed her way to the top of the 47-story stairwell in a personal-best 6:29, which goes down as the second fastest women's time in event history, and third fastest US Bank Center time in the post-2002 recorded era. The next fastest women's finishes were nearly a minute-and-a-half slower, as Allison Grahl's 7:56 edged out Regina Griffith's 7:57 for second place. Rounding out the women's top five were two other Wave 0 participants: longtime towerrunning multisport athlete Sheryl Leonard-Schneck (8:11) of Stair Club Milwaukee, and Grayslake, Ill., towerrunner Jill Paha (8:12). In the Ultimate Climb, Leonard-Schneck's 53:36 across six climbs was a distant second to more of LaVesser's dominance. LaVesser joined Duncan in the eight-climb club, finishing not only first among all women, but also third overall, logging a total of 52:58 in the stairwell. She clocked in in less than seven minutes for all but her last climb. LaVesser is one of only two women to have reached seven climbs in the previous 47-story Ultimate Climb, and her Ultimate Climb win Saturday was her fourth, adding to her total for most among anyone, man or woman, in the event. Her single-climb win is her third, an FFA event record, and ties Kristin (Frey) Renshaw for second place among all women in single-climb wins across both the CF and FFA climbs. Retired Chicago-area towerrunner Bridget (Collins) Carlson holds the US Bank Center building record, having won five straight CF Climbs between 2005 and 2009. TEAM RECORD RESET Stair Club Milwaukee broke its own FFA event team record, clocking in at a combined team time of 30:31, a per-person average of 6:07 for its five fastest climbers, all of whom finished among the top 10 fastest individual participants at the event. In addition to the times of Bruss, Finnigan, Grenetier, and Impellitteri, the team's top five was rounded out by a 6:40 personal-best single-climb effort from Josh Jackett. The team was comprised of 10 participants, but only the top five fastest of each team count for event scoring purposes. This year's Milwaukee Fight For Air Climb included eight total team categories, including five civilian categories: Accounting/Banking, Corporate, Friends & Family, Gym/Fitness, and Lawfirm. Participating in the Family & Friends category, Stair Club Milwaukee bested the previous fastest team time for any category of 31:17 (6:16/person average), which it set at last year's event. The next fastest team on the day was a Corporate category team--Milwaukee Tool, whose preliminary results reflect a top five that clocked in at 35:58, a 7:12/person average. Milwaukee Tool's top five, however, preliminarily includes the first climb from the 42-story power hour for its second-fastest listed finisher. The event's timing company is reportedly working to remove the times of all power hour participants whose first climb times ended up in the age group and team results. Removing that result from the Milwaukee Tool team's total time and advancing its sixth listed finisher up one spot, the team's time would still rank second fastest among all teams at 36:14 (7:15/person average). NUMBER ONE IN THE NATION With Saturday's turnout, the Milwaukee Fight For Air Climb remains the largest American Lung Association Fight For Air Climb in the country, both in terms of participation and also total funds raised. According to the climb results, this year's event saw more than 2,500 finishers of the full climb, Ultimate Climb, half climb, and first responder climbs. Through March 13, the event's website reports that the climb has raised approximately $651,000 toward its $700,000 goal. However, event director Monique Hughes said in a post-event email to participants that the total has exceeded the goal, cementing the Milwaukee climb's status as the largest ALA fundraising climb in the country for the sixth year in a row. Full results can be found at both Anderson Race Management's website and at Estes Epic's website. For more information about the climb itself, visit the Milwaukee Fight For Air Climb's website.
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