Short Track Desert Classic Pulls Record Skaters
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This past weekend, the Utah Olympic Oval hosted the 2025 Short Track Desert Classic, pulling record amounts of skaters from across the U.S. as well as multiple other countries. With 23 hours of racing over two days and over 200 registrations, it was the largest field in the history of the event.
The event, skated over two days, brought incredible early season racing from our World Class Open A division all the way down to the youth development age groups.
A standout performance of the weekend came from Wesley Jones, from Pinnacle Speed Skating Club. Jones set a new Junior National Record in the 1500m, finishing with a time of 2:11.543, beating the previous record by Marcus Howard of 2:12.569.
“The Desert Classic is a great way to start the season,” says US Speedskating ST Program Director, Andréa Do-Duc. “As an ability meet, it gives athletes of all levels the chance to sharpen their skills, gain racing experience, and build confidence. It’s also a great opportunity for younger athletes to share the ice with more experienced skaters or learn from watching them race. Overall, it’s a good checkpoint to see where you’re at, measure progress, and identify areas to work on for the season ahead.”
We extend a heartfelt thank you to all the volunteers and officials that spent the weekend making this competition possible. Events like this are not possible without the experience, generosity and knowledge of so many.
Here are the top three finishers in each division:
Open A
Men
1st Brandon Kim
2nd Ryan Shane
3rd Peter Groseclose
Women
1st Petra Vankova
2nd Olimpia Kazanecka
3rd Kamryn Lute
Open B
Men
1st Lucas Shi
2nd Ethan Sonn
3rd Robert Tolliver
Open C
Men
1st Andrew Sonn
2nd Damien Lee
3rd Zachary Lee
Women
1st Lidia Cosofret
2nd Hannah Huang
3rd Harshini Ramachandran
Combined D
Men
1st Alvin Sun
2nd Miles Jiang
3rd Ethan Yin
Women
1st Yu Qian Chu
2nd Kendra Lee
3rd Erene Wang
Combined E
Men
1st Kai Kwon
2nd Yiyang Niu
3rd Theophilus Tjo
Women
1st Claire Zhang
2nd Zijun Zhang
3rd Iris Lian
