ST HEARTLAND AND LT AMERICAN CUP
By Skating Fan
Gunnar Olsen,”A Dream takes one million wishes.”
Photo courtesy of Stefan Jackowniak, Athlete: Gunnar Olsen and Coach Katherine
ASE athletes for both Long Track and Short Track were in full race mode in December. The Short Track athletes headed north to Midland, Michigan for the Heartland Series and Long Track athletes landed in Roseville, Minnesota.
The ASE short track team rocked Midland, Michigan. There was great racing by Sarah Shires and Danielle Amos after bouncing back from injuries in the fall. Their positive outlook and work ethic has sped their recovery and will launch them into the New Year in the right direction. From coach Katherine, “Sarah (Shires) had to sit out of the last 500m due to a quad injury, but was back at it in the relay as the anchor on the winning team. Danielle (Amos) raced conservatively as she is only been back on ice for about a month since severely spraining her ankle in September.”
Coach Katherine stated, “A great day of racing! Midland has a unique format because the skaters don’t progress through rounds. They skate every distance 4 times against a different match up of skaters each time. The winner is decided based on the sum of the 3 fastest times per distance. Given that we won’t know the winner until every race has been raced and the times have been calculated.”
There are quite a few new faces at this Heartland Racing Series; Luca Lim, Siobhan Lim, and Jonathan So are here from Dominion; and Kevin Germinder, Adam Hancock and Dakota Mack are racing for Midland. Dominion and Midland both have skaters of all ages racing in the Midland Youth Festival.
Between the new racing format and new faces, ASE’s Gunnar Olsen had a breakout weekend. New personal bests in the 1500m (2:23), 1000m (1:31.7), and 500m (44.8) sparked the quote at the beginning. Though the ice bath with “13 buckets of ice” bath may have forced him to race that hard to simply warm back up! His dad, Phil Olsen, shared his son’s excitement, “There are a lot of ups and downs, dedication to training, diet and rest, just to name a few things. I sure hope he feels great and celebrates his results. I am proud of him and couldn’t be more excited for him, his coach, and team. Go Gunnar!”
The Long Tack athletes embraced the winds of Roseville to strong showings.
Danielle Barrett’s highlighted the ladies on the long track 2nd in the 3km and 3rd in the 1500m. Junior, Hannah Bosman was close on her tail with a 6th place finish in the 3km. Jackie Bernico has a strong showing weekend for herself placing top 10 in all 3 distances she competed! A friendly face of ASE, Esther Munoz, a junior athlete racing to top ten finishes in all distances she competed. Melissa Koenig, mother of ASE athlete, Michael, pulled double duty this weekend and got in the mix for the 500m race, go Melissa!
On the men’s side, the charge was led by the youngest; Ethan Cepuran, who wowed the field with a 4th place finish in the 3km! Michael Koenig raced consistently across the board and another junior showed his strength in the distances with a 6th place in the 3km. Ian Bahn, was also in the mix of some VERY FAST juniors with his top 10 finish in the 3km! Gerard Rux and Joel Foster embraced the elements and had their top placement in the 3km as well.
LT Results here:
http://speedskatingresults.com/index.php?p=2&e=13102
The great racing by all the athletes has me excited to strive for that “break thru” moment as well, which shows up in an instance and without warning, but always keeps us coming back to have that moment once more.
Photo courtesy of Michael Bernico, Athlete: Hannah Bosman
