2024 HIGHLIGHTS

2024 Marks Triumphant Return of Jon Berezay

Ten-year hiatus doesn’t slow Berezay, as he clinches title in final stage.

View final results and explore this year’s photo gallery (coming soon).

With the largest field of competitors (18) in the 22-year history of the Ryan Petitte Adventure Challenge, it all came down to the final stage.

Trailing by just one and a half points going into Football Accuracy, John Berezay (139 total points) locked in the top spot with a well-timed and targeted throw. While he didn’t win the stage outright (Kevin Forster locked it down), Berezay finished high enough to leapfrog his closest competitor Ben Milder (134.5) and seal the overall title.

The stage capped a back-and-forth final day that included a spirited Kayak stage at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood won Josh Robinson (107.5 pts) followed by a tough double circuit Mountain Bike stage locked down by Todd Tuggle (123 pts) on the Bell Rock Loop trail through Red Rock Park in Sedona.

Day one kicked off with with the Trail Run and a near photo finish between stage winner Brian Compagnone and second place finisher Paul Tibbits on the same Bell Rock Loop trail as the mountain bike competition the following day.

Following the run, competitors traveled to Posse Grounds Park to complete field and court stages.

While Berezay locked in his first stage victory with a 35-yard boot in the Field Goal Stage, Ben Milder responded by winning the Punt & Pass stage. Berezay answered back with a massive throw to secure the Discus stage — only to be followed by a win in the Free Throw stage for Milder, dropping 15 of 20 shots on a unfriendly double rim.

Todd Tuggle (3rd with 123 points) snapped the back-and-forth by hammering nine home runs in ten swings to capture the Home Run Derby stage.

After a well deserved break to rehydrate and clean up, and a short drive down to Camp Verde for the last stage of day one, Berezay resumed his winning ways by capturing Bowling with a 176 game in the last stage of day one.

All told, in addition to his three stage wins, Berezay also finished third in the Punt & Pass and fourth in the Mountain Bike to capture the needed points to take the overall title. It was Berezay’s first Challenge since 2015, and it was his fifth overall RPAC win.

Following Milder (2nd) and Tuggle (3rd), Graham Henshaw and Tom Milder tied for fourth place with an identical 121 points. Trail Run stage winner Brian Compagnone finished sixth (112). He was followed by Kayak State winner Josh Robins (107.5) in seventh — with Paul Tibbits, JR. just a point behind (106.5) in eighth with strong runner-up finishes in both the Trail Run (2nd) and Mountain Bike. Tai Milder (101) locked in the ninth spot, and Kevin Forster (100) rounded out the top ten.

Close on their heels were Christian Kuhn (94.5), Theron Stout (91.5), Donovan Baddley (88), Huy Nguyen (87.5), Steve Schroeder (64), the ageless Bob Ruby (64), Bill Forster, Jr. (42), and Houston Bigelow (41).

Robinson and Tibbits also shared the honor of 2024 RPAC Iron Man, which goes to the top finisher across the most physical stages of the Challenge (kayak, trail run, mountain bike).

Our 2024 winning team was the Diamondbacks led by Berezay, Henshaw, Ruby, Stout, and Bigelow with team stage titles in Bowling and the Putting Contest and strong finishes across the board.

You can check out this year’s photo gallery to see this year’s competitors in action.

And this winner of this year’s PICK ‘EM CONTEST is……… a tie between Robyn Milder and Sabrina Hume. Each picked three of the top ten finishers in the correct order (but neither entered a number for the tiebreaker, so they will each receive a $50 Visa gift card)!

Most importantly, an amazing time was had by all with thankfully only minor scraps and bruises with a few take downs on the Mountain Bike.

Best of all, with your support, we’re able to raise money to continue to support the Ryan & Collin Petitte Memorial Scholarship. In June of next year, we’ll award our twentieth scholarship winner!

(And don’t forget, for those making contributions of $100 or more - you’re eligible to get a Challenge t-shirt this year. Just send me an email with your size. I have to say I’m pumped how they came out this year, which you can see in the photo gallery. And a special thanks to J. Carroll for doing such an amazing job with them over the years!)

This would all be totally impossible without all of you and your support for the scholarship, the Challenge, and all the competitors! And a special shout out to all of the families of competitors for making the space for this every year - and to all of our supporters who have been with us for the long haul (you know who you are). We’re indebted to you.