Team USA concludes globe trotting World Cup season with six medals in Calgary
by Brennan Smith
In a fitting finale, the United States displayed one more round of fireworks in Calgary, Canada, to add an exclamation point to a triumphant Fall World Cup season.
Erin Jackson (Ocala, FL.), Joey Mantia (Ocala, FL.) and Brittany Bowe (Ocala, FL.) earned podium places in back-to-back-to-back races Saturday with Bowe adding a Gold Medal on Sunday; Jordan Stolz (Kewaskum, WI.) set a new Junior World Record and earned the first World Cup medal of his career Sunday; and the United States capped the weekend with a second consecutive Men’s Team Pursuit Gold Medal to close out a successful season that stretched across Poland, Norway, the United States and Canada with six more medals.
“It’s good momentum for us going forward. I don’t think anyone had a perfect race either and I know all three of them have things that they’ve identified from that race that they can do better. I think it’s a good way to end where you see success but you also know you can do better,” Long Track Program Director Matt Kooreman said of Mantia, Jackson and Bowe. “I think that will drive them going forward to the Games.”
Bowe opened the proceedings Friday with second-place time of (37.658) in the Women’s 500m Division B race. Sarah Warren (Willowbrook, Ill.) finished 16th with a time of (38.646).
Jackson scored another top 10 finish in the Women’s 500m race with a time of (37.162) – good for fifth place. Kimi Goetz (Flemington, NJ.) crossed the line in 16th with a time of (37.954).
Stolz foreshadowed what was to come - setting a new Junior World Record, a U.S. National Record and a personal best in the Men’s 500m with a seventh-place time of (34.110). The 17-year-old bested the Junior World Record he set last week in the 500m at the Utah Olympic Oval.
Casey Dawson (Park City, UT.) finished just outside the top 10 in the Men’s 5000m race – crossing the finish line in 11th in (6:14.922).
Dessie Weigel (Boise, ID.) scored a personal best and 12th place in the Women’s 3000m Division B race with a time of (4:06.857) with Mia Manganello-Kilburg (Crestview, Fla.) crossing the finish line in 13th position for back-to-back American placements.
Emery Lehman (Oak Park, Ill.) rounded out a strong opening day for Team USA in the Men’s 5000m Division B event with a new personal best and fifth-place effort with a time of (6:13.198). Ethan Cepuran (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) skated to a top 10 finish in 10th with a time of (6:17.738).
Saturday began with a top 10 race from Sarah Warren in the Women’s 500m Division B event. Warren scored a personal best with a time of (38.247).
Jackson struck the first medal of the day and competition for the U.S. - crossing the Women’s 500m (2) finish line with a Bronze Medal time of (36.921). Jackson racked up four Gold Medals, one Silver Medal and a Bronze over her World Cup stops during a self-described “exciting” season.
“My opener felt a lot better than the previous couple ones. Just had some missteps on the back stretch but overall, I felt pretty good about the race,” Jackson said.
Team USA added two more strong results in the event with Brittany Bowe finishing 10th and Kimi Goetz finishing 11th.
Mantia continued his reign with a second consecutive finish atop the Men’s 1500m field with a time of (1:41:860). He collected a Bronze Medal, a Silver Medal and two Gold Medals this Fall World Cup season in the 1500m to add to a World Record and Gold Medal alongside Lehman and Dawson in the Men’s Team Pursuit in Salt Lake City.
“Being on the top or being on the podium this close to the Games is definitely reassuring. I would say it’s important for me not to get complacent and not start letting off the pedal because now I think I’ve got it and I’ve just got to maintain to the Olympics,” Mantia said. “I think there’s still a lot of growth to be had and a lot of work to be done to fine tune and get even better between now and the Games.”
Lehman scored a personal best and a fourth-place finish behind Mantia in the Men’s 1500m – just missing the podium with a time of (1:43.410). Dawson rounded out the U.S.’s results with a 12th place effort and time of (1:44.184).
Bowe found herself back on the Women’s 1000m podium with a Silver Medal time of (1:12.543). Throughout the Fall World Cup season’s four stops, Bowe collected two Gold Medals, a Silver Medal and a Bronze Medal in the 1000m distance. Goetz placed top 10 once again in the Women’s 1000m with an 8th place time of (1:13.634).
Team USA finished Saturday with a third-place effort in the Women’s Team Pursuit Division B event from Brianna Bocox (Chyenne, Wyo.), Warren and Weigel.
Sunday’s competition opened with another Team USA top 5 result courtesy of Cooper McCleod (Burlington, Wash.) who raced to a 5th place finish of (34.702) in the Men’s 500m (2) B Division distance.
Bowe capped off a sterling World Cup season with a Gold Medal in the Women’s 1500m, besting two Japanese skaters with a time of (1:52.054). In addition to her 1000m success, she earned a Silver Medal in Poland and a Gold Medal Sunday in the 1500m event over the course of the season for a total of six medals.
“It feels really good to end the World Cup 4 with a win. I started out the season really strong and then had some shortcomings in Salt Lake and a Silver yesterday and Gold today,” Bowe said. “It’s nice to leave Calgary with a smile on my face and really determined to get back to work. My eyes are set on Gold in Beijing.”
Stolz won his first World Cup medal, set a Junior World Record and finished with a personal best all at once in the Men’s 1000m race – earning Silver with a time of (1:06.968) and besting his Junior World Record time from the previous weekend in Salt Lake City.
“It feels pretty good to actually be able to medal in the A Division with everybody in the world,” Stolz said.
Manganello-Kilburg brought home another top five finish for the United States – skating to a time of (8:30.910) in the Women’s Mass Start.
As Sunday’s top classification came to a close, Team USA won a second straight Gold Medal in the Men’s Team Pursuit with a time of (3:35.592). Cepuran subbed in for Mantia in a reshuffled lineup to skate alongside Dawson and Lehman but the Gold result was the same.
The win also earned an overall Men’s Team Pursuit title – completing an ascendancy to the top from a Men’s B Division start in the first World Cup in Poland.
“We really treated this race like practice and wanted to get another race under our belts before the Olympics,” Dawson said. “Switch our lineup, see what we can do and so forth.”
Mantia added another second-place finish in the Men’s 1000m Division B to close out the weekend with a time of (1:07.551).
In the final Calgary race, Goetz scored a fourth-place finish with a time of (1:55.182) and Manganello-Kilburg finished sixth with a time of (1:55.568) in the Women’s 1500m Division B event.
Kooreman complimented the team’s depth from top to bottom, young to experienced after a World Cup season that brought success from wire-to-wire.
“We’ve gotten stronger in a lot of different areas,” Kooreman said.
View the weekend's results by clicking here.
Erin Jackson (Ocala, FL.), Joey Mantia (Ocala, FL.) and Brittany Bowe (Ocala, FL.) earned podium places in back-to-back-to-back races Saturday with Bowe adding a Gold Medal on Sunday; Jordan Stolz (Kewaskum, WI.) set a new Junior World Record and earned the first World Cup medal of his career Sunday; and the United States capped the weekend with a second consecutive Men’s Team Pursuit Gold Medal to close out a successful season that stretched across Poland, Norway, the United States and Canada with six more medals.
“It’s good momentum for us going forward. I don’t think anyone had a perfect race either and I know all three of them have things that they’ve identified from that race that they can do better. I think it’s a good way to end where you see success but you also know you can do better,” Long Track Program Director Matt Kooreman said of Mantia, Jackson and Bowe. “I think that will drive them going forward to the Games.”
Bowe opened the proceedings Friday with second-place time of (37.658) in the Women’s 500m Division B race. Sarah Warren (Willowbrook, Ill.) finished 16th with a time of (38.646).
Jackson scored another top 10 finish in the Women’s 500m race with a time of (37.162) – good for fifth place. Kimi Goetz (Flemington, NJ.) crossed the line in 16th with a time of (37.954).
Stolz foreshadowed what was to come - setting a new Junior World Record, a U.S. National Record and a personal best in the Men’s 500m with a seventh-place time of (34.110). The 17-year-old bested the Junior World Record he set last week in the 500m at the Utah Olympic Oval.
Casey Dawson (Park City, UT.) finished just outside the top 10 in the Men’s 5000m race – crossing the finish line in 11th in (6:14.922).
Dessie Weigel (Boise, ID.) scored a personal best and 12th place in the Women’s 3000m Division B race with a time of (4:06.857) with Mia Manganello-Kilburg (Crestview, Fla.) crossing the finish line in 13th position for back-to-back American placements.
Emery Lehman (Oak Park, Ill.) rounded out a strong opening day for Team USA in the Men’s 5000m Division B event with a new personal best and fifth-place effort with a time of (6:13.198). Ethan Cepuran (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) skated to a top 10 finish in 10th with a time of (6:17.738).
Saturday began with a top 10 race from Sarah Warren in the Women’s 500m Division B event. Warren scored a personal best with a time of (38.247).
Jackson struck the first medal of the day and competition for the U.S. - crossing the Women’s 500m (2) finish line with a Bronze Medal time of (36.921). Jackson racked up four Gold Medals, one Silver Medal and a Bronze over her World Cup stops during a self-described “exciting” season.
“My opener felt a lot better than the previous couple ones. Just had some missteps on the back stretch but overall, I felt pretty good about the race,” Jackson said.
Team USA added two more strong results in the event with Brittany Bowe finishing 10th and Kimi Goetz finishing 11th.
Mantia continued his reign with a second consecutive finish atop the Men’s 1500m field with a time of (1:41:860). He collected a Bronze Medal, a Silver Medal and two Gold Medals this Fall World Cup season in the 1500m to add to a World Record and Gold Medal alongside Lehman and Dawson in the Men’s Team Pursuit in Salt Lake City.
“Being on the top or being on the podium this close to the Games is definitely reassuring. I would say it’s important for me not to get complacent and not start letting off the pedal because now I think I’ve got it and I’ve just got to maintain to the Olympics,” Mantia said. “I think there’s still a lot of growth to be had and a lot of work to be done to fine tune and get even better between now and the Games.”
Lehman scored a personal best and a fourth-place finish behind Mantia in the Men’s 1500m – just missing the podium with a time of (1:43.410). Dawson rounded out the U.S.’s results with a 12th place effort and time of (1:44.184).
Bowe found herself back on the Women’s 1000m podium with a Silver Medal time of (1:12.543). Throughout the Fall World Cup season’s four stops, Bowe collected two Gold Medals, a Silver Medal and a Bronze Medal in the 1000m distance. Goetz placed top 10 once again in the Women’s 1000m with an 8th place time of (1:13.634).
Team USA finished Saturday with a third-place effort in the Women’s Team Pursuit Division B event from Brianna Bocox (Chyenne, Wyo.), Warren and Weigel.
Sunday’s competition opened with another Team USA top 5 result courtesy of Cooper McCleod (Burlington, Wash.) who raced to a 5th place finish of (34.702) in the Men’s 500m (2) B Division distance.
Bowe capped off a sterling World Cup season with a Gold Medal in the Women’s 1500m, besting two Japanese skaters with a time of (1:52.054). In addition to her 1000m success, she earned a Silver Medal in Poland and a Gold Medal Sunday in the 1500m event over the course of the season for a total of six medals.
“It feels really good to end the World Cup 4 with a win. I started out the season really strong and then had some shortcomings in Salt Lake and a Silver yesterday and Gold today,” Bowe said. “It’s nice to leave Calgary with a smile on my face and really determined to get back to work. My eyes are set on Gold in Beijing.”
Stolz won his first World Cup medal, set a Junior World Record and finished with a personal best all at once in the Men’s 1000m race – earning Silver with a time of (1:06.968) and besting his Junior World Record time from the previous weekend in Salt Lake City.
“It feels pretty good to actually be able to medal in the A Division with everybody in the world,” Stolz said.
Manganello-Kilburg brought home another top five finish for the United States – skating to a time of (8:30.910) in the Women’s Mass Start.
As Sunday’s top classification came to a close, Team USA won a second straight Gold Medal in the Men’s Team Pursuit with a time of (3:35.592). Cepuran subbed in for Mantia in a reshuffled lineup to skate alongside Dawson and Lehman but the Gold result was the same.
The win also earned an overall Men’s Team Pursuit title – completing an ascendancy to the top from a Men’s B Division start in the first World Cup in Poland.
“We really treated this race like practice and wanted to get another race under our belts before the Olympics,” Dawson said. “Switch our lineup, see what we can do and so forth.”
Mantia added another second-place finish in the Men’s 1000m Division B to close out the weekend with a time of (1:07.551).
In the final Calgary race, Goetz scored a fourth-place finish with a time of (1:55.182) and Manganello-Kilburg finished sixth with a time of (1:55.568) in the Women’s 1500m Division B event.
Kooreman complimented the team’s depth from top to bottom, young to experienced after a World Cup season that brought success from wire-to-wire.
“We’ve gotten stronger in a lot of different areas,” Kooreman said.
View the weekend's results by clicking here.