Men’s Team Pursuit Smashes Its Own World Record in World Cup Opener on Home Ice

U.S. skaters reached the podium eight times and set multiple records in the season-opening ISU Speed Skating World Cup held this weekend at Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns.

Seven-time World Champion Jordan Stolz led the way with three wins while breaking a National Record, and Mia Manganello took first place in the Women’s Mass Start.

Meanwhile, Ethan Cepuran, Emery Lehman and Casey Dawson combined to break their own World Record in the Men’s Team Pursuit. The 2022 Olympic Bronze medalists posted a time of 3:32.49 on Sunday to smash their 2024 World Record by 1.17 seconds and defeat reigning Olympic champion Norway by nearly three seconds.

“It’s awesome,” said Dawson, a Utah native. “I was born and raised in Utah, so having literally my friends from high school and then my parents and everyone is here. Just to set a World Record with these boys in front of a legitimate home crowd is awesome to me personally.”

The goal is Olympic Gold at the Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

“We think about that every day,” Cepuran said. “We know we can’t take the foot off the gas pedal. It’s November right now. The goal is February.”

Stolz, a 2022 Olympian who swept the Men’s 500m, 1000m and 1500m events at both the 2023 and 2024 World Championships, opened an Olympic season by winning all three events in Utah. His 1000m time of 1:05.66 on Friday set a National Record.

“Skating to this National Record in front of the home crowd is something special,” Stolz said. “It holds a little bit more pressure in the heart pretty much. It’s great.”

On Saturday, Stolz also won the first 500m race in 33.88 seconds and then the 1500m in a personal-best time of 1:40.48 and. He missed a World Record by just .31 seconds in the 1500m.

“I thought about it before the race,” Stolz said. “I think if I were a little bit more rested going into it, not having done the 1000m and then a 500m before, even if it wasn’t just the 500m, maybe I could have gotten it.”

Stolz nearly added a fourth medal in the second 500m on Sunday but finished fourth. His time of 33.79 seconds was actually faster than his 500m victory. Jenning de Boo of the Netherlands won that race in 33.63 seconds.

Stolz closed out the competition in the Men’s Mass Start, finishing 15th. His race came just after two-time Olympian Manganello won the Women’s Mass Start in 8:25.57. This was her first Gold medal in the Mass Start, an emotional win for Manganello on home ice.

“The race was intense from the gun,” said Manganello about her race strategy, “I knew the best teams were going to be represented [in the breakout group] and I needed to bridge that gap and make sure the U.S. was represented also.”

Reigning Olympic 500m champion Erin Jackson, who says she is 80 percent recovered from a back injury, scored a pair of Silver medals in that event. She was one of three women to break the 37-seconds barrier, doing it twice with times of 36.87 on Saturday and 36.57 on Sunday. Her Sunday time broke an American Record, though it wasn’t quite enough to overtake Femke Kok of the Netherlands, who won in a World-Record time of 36.09.

“On the backstretch,” Jackson said, “I felt a little strange, and I guess looking back, probably because I was going faster than I ever had. So I was trying to keep up with my feet.”

Jackson also placed eighth in the 1000m, three spots behind teammate Brittany Bowe. Bowe was also the top finisher in the 1500m, taking sixth.

“Last weekend was my first time in like three years racing with my back feeling good,” Jackson said. “So it’s a really promising feeling going into the rest of the season having a healthy back.”

Another U.S. Record fell in the Women’s Team Pursuit on Sunday, when three-time Olympian Bowe, Greta Myers and Manganello combined for a third-place finish with a time of 2:54.01.

Dawson set a U.S. Record in the Men’s 5000m, finishing fourth with a time of 6:04.40, and Myers added a National Record in the Women’s 3000m. She finished 11th in the B race with a time of 4:01.66.

Cooper McLeod had a trio of Top 10 finishes, placing seventh and 10th in the Men’s 500m, and ninth in the 1000m.

The World Cup Tour moves to Calgary, Alberta, for the second stop, Nov. 21-23.

Paul D. Bowker has been writing about Olympic and Paralympic sports since 1996, when he was an assistant bureau chief in Atlanta. He is a freelance contributor to USSpeedskating.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.