Altus Firefighters/Team Dr. Pepper Finishes 3rd in the
World Championships

The Altus Firefighters/ Team Dr. Pepper competed in the Firefighter Combat Challenge World Championships X in Memphis, Tennessee last weekend. They finished in 3rd place of the final field of 64, 2nd among the U.S. teams. The Combat Challenge is an obstacle course of simulated fire ground events that requires strength, speed, and endurance.

The Streamlight Relay division is organized in an NCAA style 64-team tournament bracket. The teams are seeded according to their preliminary run times. During the relay races, the time is not as important as winning
the race. You must win to move on and it takes 6 wins to be World Champions.

“We knew it would be tough, to win it all,” said Jimmy Rogers. “We would have to win 6 races with little or no rest, and our bracket was arguably the
toughest bracket.” Altus/ Team Dr. Pepper earned a 19 seed and eventually faced 4 of the top 10 U.S. teams plus the Canadian National Champions.

The first race was against unranked and new competitor York, Pa. Altus/ Team Dr. Pepper won easily and moved on to face O.W.L., a large department in Virginia ranked 9th in the U.S. The two teams ran an extremely close race with Altus winning in the last five feet with a time of 1:22.78.

Team Dr. Pepper then moved on to the sweet sixteen to face the 2nd ranked Deerfield Beach Fire/ Rescue team.  Deerfield Beach was narrowly beaten in the NFL challenge earlier in the year and they were one of the favorites to win it all. This was another close race and Deerfield had a slight advantage at the start of the dummy drag, but fell down as Altus blew by to finish with a time of 1:19.78, their fastest time
ever, but they had a 5 second penalty at the top of the tower. Fortunately they finished enough ahead to overcome the penalty.

“We knew if we could keep it close, then Rhino (Tim Sullivan) would blow them away.” Said competitor Greg Nettleton. “A lot of dummy draggers fall against us because Tim is so fast. He either catches them or
pulls away, and the only way they can keep up is to lean back and drag faster than they can physically go, which causes them to be off balance and fall.”

Altus/ Team Dr. Pepper then moved into the Final Eight. ESPN began filming the races from this point on and Altus would face 5th ranked McKinney, Texas, a team that had beaten them earlier this year in winning the Dallas regional championship.

“We knew it was time to step it up a notch,” said Randy Gipson. “Our goal was to run under 1:20. Against Deerfield Beach, we did but we had a penalty at the top of the tower. McKinney ran a 1:16.92 in their previous race, so we knew it would take our best.”

Against McKinney, which will be the first race on ESPN, Altus was behind after the tower. Kenny Ward made up the difference on the Keiser Force sled. Altus ran a near perfect race and arrived at the head of the dummy slightly behind McKinney. Tim Sullivan scooped up the dummy and had a great pull overcoming the deficit and taking a slight lead as they crossed the finish line. Altus ran a 1:16.77, their fastest time, edging out McKinney’s time of 1:17.00.

Altus/ Team Dr. Pepper then moved on to the Final Four. They would face the Canadian National Champions from Windsor.

“Once we made the final four, we knew, win or lose, we had two more races,” said Jimmy Rogers. “My concern was running out of gas and making a poor showing on national T.V. Then some may question if we belonged in the finals.”

The Final Four consisted of Fairfax County (over 1700 firefighters), Windsor (380 firefighters), Memphis (1684 firefighters), and Altus (32 firefighters).

Fatigue was definitely a factor, as the runs got closer together. Team Dr. Pepper lost the semi-final round to Windsor. Since they were in the second bracket, the next race started immediately with no
rest.

“After I handed the flashlight off, I just sat down and rested, I didn’t even know our time,” said Jimmy.  “I just knew we lost.”

“We were pretty far behind, so we conserved our energy and our time showed it,” said Tim Sullivan.  Altus ran a 1:27.22 to Windsor’s 1:16.02.

The next race was against the 6th ranked Bluff City Elite from Memphis Fire Department. The odds were against Altus because not only was Memphis able to watch, and rest, while Altus ran, but also had one
less run on the day due to a forfeit. No team had ever won back-to-back races. The team with rest always wins.

“I looked at Greg and asked if he would run the last tower for me,” said Jimmy. “He saw the pain in my eyes and with little compassion, said NO! Some help he was.  I knew I could get to the top, I just didn’t want to
lose the race before we ever got out of the tower.”

The bell sounded and Jimmy ran to the top of the five-story tower slower than usual, and discharged the 45# hose pack into the box. When he handed the streamlight flashlight off to Randy Gipson, Altus was about 3-4 seconds behind Memphis, and Randy began to pull the 50 pound hose roll up the 5 floors for the sixth time of the day.

“The Memphis fireman had pulled the rope 5 times before Randy grabbed the rope,” said Tim Sullivan who watched from the ground awaiting his task. “But Randy had an awesome rope pull and gave us the lead on his own.”

When Jimmy came down the stairs and handed off to Chief Kenny Ward, Team Dr. Pepper was in the lead.  Kenny drove the 165 pound steel beam 5 feet backwards with a 9 pound shot mallet and turned his fastest time of the day. Greg Nettleton then took the flashlight and ran the 145’ serpentine on rubber legs to the 225# charged hose line. With all the strength he could muster, he dragged it 75 feet and sprayed the target.
Altus Team Dr. Pepper had a commanding lead, and by the time Tim “Rhino” Sullivan finished dragging the 175 pound dummy 100 feet, Altus had taken 3rd place in the world championships.

“I wanted to collapse on the course,” said Jimmy.  “ESPN was interviewing my teammates and I wasn’t sure I could make it to them. I’m glad all those 5:30 A.M. practices paid off. ”

“God was definitely with us,” said Kenny Ward. “We prayed before every run and He gave us the strength to finish.”
   
Captain Tommy Sadler had a strong showing as well, shaving 13 seconds off of his personal record to finish with a time of 2:29.11.

“To put that in perspective, the first time we competed as a relay team three years ago, we finished with a time of 2:27,” said Jimmy Rogers. “And we use 5 firefighters to complete the course. Tommy does the
whole course by his self.”

“I’m glad to finally run a sub 2:30,” said Tommy. “I knew if I just kept working hard it would come.”

“We had really worked with Tommy on technique as well as weight training to improve wherever he could to get that sub 2:30 time,” said Fire Chief Kenny Ward. “The determination he shows in his workouts and at practice gives us all a boost.” Tommy trained every morning at 5:00 to get stronger and faster. His hard work certainly paid off. Tommy officially finished in 13th place.

Not all news was good. Team Dr. Pepper has two teams and Team #2 had been training for the relay as well.  They ran their preliminary race for tournament seeding and turned a strong time of 1:27. The good feeling
didn’t last long as they soon found out they were disqualified for not completing a task. The Keiser sled did not cross the end plane stopping just short.  Most infractions are assessed a penalty, but since this is an incompletion, it goes down as a disqualification.

“I felt terrible for Team 2 because they had worked hard and earned the right to compete,” said Greg Nettleton. “I hoped that they would at least let them run in the tournament.”

No such luck, as there were more than 80 teams, and they only took the top 64.

“The one thing I appreciated was them being right there, cheering us on every race, ” said Jimmy Rogers.  “Chris had pushed me hard in practice and was screaming in my ear before the last race. It certainly helped us. We would not have done as well if it wasn’t for them.”

Team 2 consists of Chris Brewer, Eric Madden, Howard Hicks, and Steven Davis. 

The Firefighter Challenge World Championships will air on ESPN next month with times and dates to be announced. Results are posted at
www.firefighterchallenge.com. Altus/ Team Dr. Pepper’s
website is http://altuscct.20m.com.