Summit Country Club Summit has list of prolific club champions
Area golf
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The local golf scene turns toward the Cresson area this weekend as area golfers compete in the 33rd annual Summit Invitational best-ball event.
Summit Country Club can trace its history back more than 100 years, and over that time a number of skilled golfers have displayed their skills at this scenic mountain-top course.
While the club has a long list of winners in its annual club championship competition, there are a few names that have been able to dominate tournament play over the years.
Summit's first dominant golfer was Cresson's Sam Runzo.
Runzo's father and mother both emigrated from Italy during the early 1900s and eventually settled in this area, opening a successful produce market along second street in Cresson.
The business developed into a popular grocery store, where the younger Runzo helped out as a teenager and ultimately managed as an adult.
Through these years, Runzo spent much of his leisure time on the Summit golf course.
In 1931, at the age of 22, Runzo became the youngest golfer to reach the finals of Summit's club championship competition. In an upset, Runzo captured that year's title by beating Father John M. Quinn, pastor of Gallitzin's St. Patrick Catholic Church, in the championship finale.
Runzo followed that win with additional victories in 1932, 1933, 1937, 1938, 1947, 1948 and 1950. In total, Summit's first prolific champion captured a total of eight club championships before his unexpected death in 1971, at the age of 62.
By that time another local man, Jack Calandra, was making his own impact felt at the club.
Calandra, a graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, was in the midst of forging his career as a highly successful businessman in charge of companies like the Jennmar Corporation and Cresson Steel Company.
Calandra also had a strong passion for golf and had started as a junior member at the club in 1946, at age 15.
It took a while for Calandra's golf game to bloom but when it did, he won consistently. Calandra's first championship victory came in 1973 at the age of 42. This was followed by wins in 1976, 1977, 1986, 1987, and 1989, for a grand total of six club championships.
Despite this impressive golfing resume, Calandra's larger impact most likely took place without a club in his hand.
A longtime president and board member, Calandra was a generous benefactor to the club through the years and was also the driving force behind Summit's expansion from nine to 18 holes during the late 1960s.
Nearing the turn of this century, Altoona native Steve DeStefano became the man to beat at Summit.
After learning the game from his father, DeStefano became a standout on Altoona Area High School's golf team during the early 1980s. He also competed on Duquesne University's golf team while earning his pharmaceutical degree.
After college, DeStefano returned to become one the area's best golfers, capturing his first Summit title in 1998. He followed a few years later with an impressive run of six titles in a row from 2002 through 2008 and would eventually add four more victories (2010, 2016, 2017, and 2019) to raise his total to a record 12 club championships.
A few years ago, Destefano relocated to Florida where he and his family now reside.
Summit's current dominant player is Cresson's Quintin Dziabo. A standout athlete at Penn Cambria, Dziabo was the school's first basketball player to score 1,000 points.
Dziabo eventually focused his athletic talents on golf and captured his first championship at Summit Country Club in 2009. Over the next few years this title seemed to be an annual battle between Dziabo and DeStefano for the top spot.
Dziabo went on to win additional championships in 2015, 2018, 2020, 2023 and again just last year. There are likely many more titles in store for Dziabo in the upcoming years.
Finally, on the women's side, one name stands out above all others. Altoona native Anita Jo Petrusky joined Summit in the late 1980s and won her first club championship in 1990.
Over the next three decades she won an amazing 26 times over a 29-year span. Her last win at Summit came in 2018.
Petrusky also captured a Greater Altoona women's title in 2002 while representing Summit.