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.
0 Comments
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. Just four days after an unprecedented stair race doubleheader in Chicago, two climbers rose to the top at Milwaukee's US Bank Center during the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Wisconsin Chapter's 26th Annual Climbing For A Cure. Sheryl Leonard-Schneck became the fifth woman to win multiple climbs on the women's side of things at the US Bank Center, clocking in at 7:51. Her other victory came during the CFF's 2013 Climbing For A Cure. As for the men, Golden Valley, Minn.'s Jason Larson picked up his first-ever win at Milwaukee's tallest building while also setting a PR of 5:35 to reach the top. While this was Larson's first time competing at the November CFF climb, he's finished second during each of the past two Milwaukee Fight For Air Climbs behind Sal Impellitteri. The wins for both Larson and Leonard-Schneck came following two separate races only the prior Sunday at Chicago's Willis (Sears) Tower (103 stories, 2,115 steps) for SkyRise Chicago 2015 and at the city's 300 N. LaSalle building (58 stories, 1,200 steps) for the Chicago Cystic Fibrosis climb. In addition to those two, five others competed in both Chicago climbs on Sunday before taking on Milwaukee on Thursday: Chicago-area climbers Josh Duncan (6:11 on Thursday), David Hanley (6:28), and Charles Bower (8:12); Josh Jackett (6:43) of Sussex; and James Shibley (9:10) of Sunnyvale, Calif. Other notable finishes at Thursday's climb included a 6:46 from Ben Ruyle, who last climbed anywhere during his 2012 victory at the Milwaukee CFF climb, as well as a 5:53 from first-time climber Adam Bruss of West Allis, who became the 14th person (13th man) to crack the sub-6 mark at the US Bank Center. The three-person Stair Club Milwaukee co-ed team, consisting of Leonard-Schneck, Jackett, and some assistance from Hanley, a Chicago ringer, dominated the team competition with an average of 7:01. The next fastest team in any division, which averaged 8:00-flat in the men's division, was the Kenosha Drivers Club, consisting of longtime US Bank Center climber Brian Rummelhart (6:45), his son Justin (6:47), and Ray Tessman (10:26). A total of 260 participants scaled the steps to the top of the 47-story US Bank Center, a decrease from 339 in 2014. According to the CFF Wisconsin Chapter, this year's participants raised more than $67,000 for the charity's efforts to cure Cystic Fibrosis. Full results can be found HERE. A full list of US Bank Center climb achievements can be found HERE. 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. While this year's climb boasted an event-record 3,100-plus participants and has raised approximately $710,000, success was the name of the game for climbers at the 2015 FFA Climb as well, as one familiar face and one newcomer broke multiple event climb records. Milwaukee-area runner Sal Impellitteri reached the top of the city's 47-story US Bank Center faster than anyone in the six-year history of the Milwaukee FFA Climb. The 5 minutes and 12 seconds he took to reach the top was 11 seconds faster than Alex Docta's 5:23 finish in 2011. It was Impellitteri's third straight win, also an event record. His three wins also tie him with longtime Chicago-area competitive stair climbers Jesse Berg and Eric Leninger for most combined stair race wins in Milwaukee, also including the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's Climbing For A Cure event, which is held each November at the US Bank Center. Like Impellitteri, Chicago-area climber Liz Ruvalcaba not only won among all female participants, she clocked the fastest time ever by a female participant at the Milwaukee FFA. Her 6:21, which came as the first climb of seven total she completed during the Ultimate Climb "power hour," was 14 seconds faster than Kristin Frey's 6:35 FFA finish in 2011. Ruvalcaba became the sixth person total, the second female, and the fastest person ever -- male or female -- to complete seven climbs at the Milwaukee FFA Ultimate Climb, where participants climb to the top as many times as they can within a one hour time limit. Ruvalcaba's cumulative time of 48:22 was nearly one minute faster than the previous fastest time of anyone to achieve seven trips to the top in an hour. Gustavo Ayres Netto totaled 49:08 in 2013. Ruvalcaba, who made her stair climbing debut with a third-place female finish at SkyRise Chicago last November at the Willis Tower, was not new to the US Bank Center, however. She took home the top finish at last November's CFF Climbing For A Cure with a 6:37 finish. While her FFA finish of 6:21 was the fastest female time in event history, it ranks second in building history to longtime Indianapolis climber Cindy Harris' 5:55 finish at 2011's CFF Climbing For A Cure. Similarly, Impelliterri's 5:12 ranks eighth in overall building history behind various CFF Climb times by Berg, Leninger, and US Bank Center record-holder Justin Stewart, who reached floor 47 in 4:50, also at 2011's CFF Climbing For A Cure. Individual records weren't the only to fall, as the first-ever organized Stair Club Milwaukee team, which competed in the Family & Friends division, and was headed by Impellitteri's 5:12, averaged 7:00-flat. The 2015 FFA Climb reverted to a "top five" format -- where only the top five fastest climb times for a team's total members count for team scoring -- after using a "top four" format the past few years. Even with an additional climb time to average in, Stair Club Milwaukee's team average was faster than any team of any size in any division in building history. The team's top five were rounded out by Josh Jackett (6:55), Justin Cumley (7:23), Baxter White (7:29) and Stephanie Vetter (7:58). The team was also comprised of longtime Milwaukee-area climber and all-around athlete Sheryl Leonard-Schneck (8:25), Kori Cumley (11:16), Paul Gesell (11:51), and Craig Waszak (11:55). Baker Tilly Milwaukee averaged 7:27 to win the corporate division. Baker Tilly's team average ranks second all-time for teams of any size in any division in building history, right behind Stair Club Milwaukee's effort at the same event. Baker Tilly's top five were Chris Hart (6:46), Jared Ward (7:24), Matt Appelt (7:38), Sam Kenseth (7:43), and Doug Obermann (7:43). The previous fastest team time average was 7:44, set by the Northwestern Mutual corporate team at the 2012 FFA Climb. While record-setting performances were the primary theme of the day, the event did encounter one hiccup during the Ultimate Climb, as a temporary elevator malfunction disrupted the flow of participants back to the starting level. The malfunction likely prevented three six-climb finishers from achieving seven climbs: Chicago-area climber Josh Duncan, Minneapolis-area climber Jason Larson, and Milwaukee-area runner Holly LaVesser. Larson had won the Milwaukee FFA Ultimate Climb each of the past two years, achieving seven climbs each time. LaVesser became the first woman in the history of the event to achieve seven climbs last year. This was Duncan's first time participating in the Milwaukee FFA Ultimate Climb, but he achieved the fastest cumulative time of anyone to reach the top six times. Full results can be found HERE. For a list of all US Bank Center stair climbing records and achievements, click HERE. A total of 79 people made the trip down from Wisconsin to Chicago's John Hancock Center on Sunday, Feb. 22, to compete and participate in the 2015 Hustle Up The Hancock stair climb.
Wisconsin was represented by participants of all types -- general climbers, elite-qualifying climbers, and firefighters -- at the 94-story, 1,632 climb, which benefits Chicago's Respiratory Health Association. The state's fastest time was posted by Madison's Gail Campbell, of the firefighter team Ride Backwards, who completed the ascent to the Hancock Building's 360-Chicago observatory deck in 13:59. The fastest male time by a Wisconsinite was 14:04 by Campbell's Ride Backwards teammate Travis Powell-Wolf of Elkhorn. The fastest non-firefighters were Madison's Tessa Dorresteijn, who reached the top in 14:45 and finished 18th among all women, and Dustin Maher of Middleton, whose 15:01 finish placed him 93rd out of all men. This year's Hustle Up The Hancock drew a total of 2,782 participants -- 1,334 women and 1,448 men. The overall fastest climber was Eric Leninger of St. Charles, Ill., who finished in 9:51. Cindy Harris of Indianapolis, Ind., notched a time of 11:44 to take home to the top female spot. Full results can be found HERE. |