Jordan Stolz Opens Season With Five Victories At US Long Track Championships
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by Paul Bowker
Reigning World Allaround Champion Jordan Stolz won five races while Casey Dawson and Greta Myers each set track records at the US Long Track Championships held this weekend in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Among the other standouts at the Pettit National Ice Center was Brittany Bowe, a three-time Olympian and two-time medalist, who won the Women’s 1000m and 1500m titles. Kimi Goetz, a 2022 Olympian, held off reigning Olympic Champion Erin Jackson twice in the Women’s 500m, and added second-place finishes in the 1000m and 1500m.
The competition, held Nov. 1-3, was a qualifier that will determine the Fall World Cup Team.
Stolz, a 2022 Olympian and seven-time World Champion, won twice in the Men’s 500m, and added wins in the 1000m, 1500m and Mass Start. He’s hoping that’s just the start to a strong season.
“I think, going into the World Cup season, as I do more races, I’m going to get in better shape,” Stolz said. “Right now, I’m not quite in good racing shape. This is the first hard competition. My training is going to be hard, but the races, we’re going to work that into the training and it’s going to help out a bit.”
The season cranks up with the ISU Four Continents Speed Skating Championships in Hachinohe City, Japan, Nov. 15-17, then the first World Cup in Nagano, Japan, Nov. 22-24.
Dawson set a Track Record in the 5000m, chasing down the elusive old record, with a time of 6 minutes, 15.61 seconds.
“Finally. I think me, Ethan (Cepuran) and Emery (Lehman) have been so close so many times,” said Dawson, who won an Olympic Bronze medal in the Men’s Team Pursuit with Cepuran and Lehman. “It was bound to happen. It just shows that I’m back in almost Olympic-year shape, hopefully, and I can keep building on that going into the next Olympics.”
Cepuran finished second with a time of 6:27.29. Lehman and Cepuran finished second and third, respectively, behind Stolz in the 1500m.
Myers set a track record in the Women’s 3000m, winning with a time of 4:05.45 and defeating two-time Olympian Mia Manganello by nearly 12 seconds.
“When I crossed the line, I had no idea that I got a track record,” Myers said. “So it was such an exciting surprise for me when I heard it announced on the loudspeaker. I didn’t expect to feel as good as I did during the race, so I was pretty pumped to have such a strong result early in the year.”
Manganello won the overall 16-lap Mass Start title.
Kelin Dunfee won the Men’s 10,000m and one of the Mass Start races while in the Women’s 5000, Rebecca Simmons was the top U.S. finisher. Zach Stoppelmoor finished as the runner-up to Stolz in both 500m races as well as the 1000m, while Cooper McLeod took third in all three sprints.
Stolz, who swept the world titles at 500m, 1000m and 1500m for the second consecutive year in 2024, has his eyes on another title this season.
“I’d like to see what I can do in the overall distance placement at the end of the year,” Stolz said. “I haven’t won that yet, and I’d like to.”
Paul D. Bowker has been writing about Olympic 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.
