Five Americans Win Events At The Season’s Final American Cup in Kearns

Five U.S. long track skaters won events in the American Cup Final held this past weekend at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns.

Giorgia Birkeland topped the podium in the Women’s 3000m and Kelin Dunfee won the Men’s 5000m, while Piper Yde took first in the Women’s Mass Start and Thomas Fitzgerald and William Silk each won a Men’s Mass Start race.

The competition, which was held March 7-9, concluded the season series for the American Cup, which also featured stops in Milwaukee and Roseville, Minnesota.

Birkeland reached the podium twice, claiming the 3000m with a time of 4:12.14 and finishing second in the 1500m with a personal-best time of 2:00.77.

Yde led a U.S. sweep in the second Mass Start, winning in 6:10.50, with Marley Soldan coming in second and Rebecca Simmons third.

Soldan, who is coming off a Mass Start Bronze medal at the ISU World Junior Speed Skating Championships last month, had an American-best three podium finishes in Kearns. She also placed second in the 5000m and third in the 3000m, with her times of 7:33.73 and 4:17.44 both being personal bests.

Simmons added a third-place finish in the 5000m, while Anna Quinn also found the podium twice in taking third place in both 1000m races.

On the men’s side, both Mass Start races ended in U.S. sweeps. Fitzgerald won the first race in 5:10.56, with Liam Kitchel and Silk behind him. The podium spots shuffled in the next race, with Silk earning top honors at 5:20.74 and Fitzgerald and Kitchel trailing him. Silk was also coming off a Mass Start Bronze medal at the Junior World Championships. Dunfee won the 5000m in 6:40.46.

Two other U.S. men reached the podium twice. Alec Sklutovsky finished second in the first 500m and also in the 1000m. Austin Kleba took third in the first 500m and finished runner-up in the second 500m. Jonathan Kuck also reached the podium, placing second in the 1500m.

Several other U.S. skaters came close to the podium.

Birkeland finished fourth in the Women’s 1000m, while Yde had a fifth-place finish in the 3000m, and Quinn was fifth in the 1500m.

Blair Cruikshank placed among the top six in three races, finishing fifth in one 500m, and sixth in another 500m and the 1000m. Libby Williams added a sixth-place finish in the 1000m, and Simmons was sixth in the 3000m.

For the men, Silk added a fourth-place finish in the 5000m, and was followed by Herbert Harbison in fifth place and Fitzgerald in sixth place.

Among the other results in Kearns, Americans Dawson Price, Tyler Lee and Nickolas De Bock finished 1-2-3 in the Men’s 500m Champions Challenge. Price won with a time of 43.62 seconds.

Jeff Terwilliger, Matthew Trimble and Joshua Krieter were the top three finishers in the Men’s Masters 3000m. Terwilliger won in 4:39.59.

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.