Vestavia Hills firefighter places 2nd in age group in regional Firefighter Challenge in Pennsylvania

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Ana Ruzevic, a Vestavia Hills fire medic, on Saturday won second place in her age division and third place overall for women in the Northeast Regional for the Firefighter Challenge in Exton, Pennsylvania, qualifying her for the national competition at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in September.

The Firefighter Challenge, labeled by firefighters as the “toughest two minutes in sports,” is an event in which firefighters compete against each other by simulating the physical demands of real-life firefighting. Competitors wear full gear and self-contained breathing apparatuses and perform tasks such as carrying a high-rise pack upstairs, advancing a charged hoseline and dragging a 175-pound mannequin for 100 feet.

On Saturday, Ruzevic came in second behind Sarah McGill of the Lexington Fire Department in Kentucky in the division for women under age 40. McGill completed the course in 2 minutes, 18.64 seconds, and Ruzevic finished the course in 2 minutes, 28.02 seconds.

Ruzevic’s time was just 4 seconds more than her personal best of 2 minutes, 24 seconds in 2021. She was the national champion in 2019, her first full year to compete in the competitions, and again in 2021. Last year, she and McGill were world champions as partners in the tandem competition.

Ruzevic and McGill are good friends and train together once a month.

Ruzevic said she’s had a lot of things going on in her life and she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to make Saturday’s competition in Pennsylvania, but it worked out so she could be there.

“When I don’t think that I’m going to do well, those are the times I do really well,” she said. “My goal was just to go out there and have fun and see everybody. It was really great to see everybody, and I handled the course better than I thought I would.”

Ruzevic, who is 35, also plans to compete in the Southeast Regional in Lexington on Aug. 22 before coming to nationals in Hoover on Sept. 25-28. She has been with the Vestavia Hills Fire Department since January 2018 and works part-time with the Center Point Fire Department.