Santos-Griswold, Heo Score Wins in Season-Opening U.S. Short Track Championships

Kristen Santos-Griswold began her 2024-25 Short Track season clearly aiming for the world’s top spot.

The native of Fairfield, Connecticut, swept six races in three distances over the weekend at the U.S. Speedskating Short Track U.S. Championships at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns, just as she did one year ago at the beginning of her record-breaking season.

Santos-Griswold, a 2022 Olympian and runner-up in last year’s ISU World Cup Crystal Globe standings, won the Women’s U.S. Overall title, while Andrew Heo won the Men’s title.

“Last year I was No. 2, so looking for No. 1 this year,” Santos-Griswold said of the upcoming season.

After winning all six races at last year’s U.S. Championships, Santos-Griswold went on to win her first world title in the 1000m, two other World Championships medals and 18 medals in World Cup competition.

The U.S. Championships, which were held Sept. 20-22, also served as a qualifier for the Fall World Tour Team.

“I can get really nervous for these races, so I was just trying to take it one race at a time, enjoy myself, pay attention to my tracks and learn new things,” Santos-Griswold said.

On the Men’s side, Heo, of Warrington, Pennsylvania, recorded a first-place finish in the 1000m, a runner-up finish in the 500m, and third in the 1500m and came out on top as the Overall U.S. Champion.

“My goal was to be calm and relaxed with every race while taking each race one by one. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do all that on my own,” he said.“ I put all my faith in God and after that, there wasn’t much to think about besides to try my best, give everything I have, and hope for a good outcome.”

The ISU Short Track World Tour begins Oct. 25-27 in Montreal, Canada. The second event of the newly branded series will take place Nov. 1-3 on home ice at the Utah Olympic Oval.

Corinne Stoddard, a 2022 Olympian who won three World Championships medals last season, finished runner-up to Santos-Griswold in all six finals at the 500m, 1000m and 1500m distances, and wound up second in the overall standings. Eunice Lee finished third with five third-place finishes. Olimpia Kazanecka placed third in the second 1000m final and Louisiana Stahl took third in the second 1500m final.

Griswold-Santos’ precision included a pair of first-place finishes in the 500m with the same time: 42.378 seconds.

“It felt really good,” she said. “I felt like I could go pretty fast at the end of my races. I still definitely have quite some things to work on. I think we’ll get there this year.”

Heo, who scored a Bronze medal in the 500m at Four Continents Championships and multiple Mixed Relay medals during the World Cup circuit last season, won three of the six races this weekend. He plans to take this as a confidence boost leading into the rest of the season.

“Obviously there’s still a lot of work to do but I trust that I’m on the path that I need to be on for me to get to where I want to be,” said Heo. “This season, I’m in much better shape and I’m just excited to build off the momentum from last season and see what else I’m able to do this upcoming season.”

Brandon Kim, who finished second in the men’s competition, won both the 1500m and 500m Overall Titles. He finished top three in five out of the six races this weekend but missed the Overall due to a penalty in the final distance quarter finals.

Marcus Howard finished third in the overall standings with a victory at 1500m #2 and a pair of third-place finishes at 500m.

Clayton DeClemente had a second-place finish at 1000m and a third-place finish at 1500m.

Podium finishes were spread among eight men. Finishing second in the finals were Seung-Min Kwon at 500m, Wesley Park at 1000m and Aaron Liu at 1500m. Noah Troppe placed third in the 1000m.

Find full results here.

The ISU Short Track World Tour begins Oct. 25-27 in Montreal, Canada. The second event of the newly branded series will take place Nov. 1-3 on home ice at the Utah Olympic Oval. Buy tickets to the event here.

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.