The USOEC speedskating team will be heading to their first big event of the season this weekend: the 2010 American Cup I-Short Track (a Fall World Cup Qualifier) at the US Olympic Training Facility in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the renowned Pettit National Ice Center.  The Pettit has hosted numerous skating competitions, including the National Short and Long Track Speed Skating Championships, the World Sprint Speed Skating Championships, and the U.S. Olympic Speed Skating Time Trials.

The team has been working overtime since the end of last school year all through the summer getting ready for this first of four American Cup series.

Sophomore Chris Creveling from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, mentioned that the summer training he went through was the hardest he’s done in a while.

“This summers training was the most intense I’ve ever had, its been an entire year of training for me,” Creveling said.

Creveling has crossed over to ice speedskating from inline skating where he was on consecutive Junior and Senior World teams as well as the 2002 Junior and 2003 Senior World Champion.  He can’t wait to get to the level in ice that he was on inlines, and he feels this may be his year.

“I want to get to the point on the ice where I was on inlines and I think I am finally there in my ice skating. A majority of the Olympic team members last year are taking a few years off so its my time,” Creveling said.

Another crossover from inline skating is freshman April Albanese.  The transition from inlines to ice for her has been challenging but feels that the training here at the USOEC has her completely prepared for the American Cup I coming up.

“The transition to ice has been hard; the technique and strategy is so different on the ice so they have to teach an old dog new tricks. I started training here in June.  I’m used to practicing four times a week for inlines, now its six times a week plus six dryland practices a week for ice,” Albanese said.

Albanese is excited for the upcoming race, and she said her qualifying times are very motivating.  She qualified to race with the second fastest group of women in the country (Group B) and wasn’t far behind the fastest women (Group A).

“Not only was my American Cup B qualifying time three seconds behind American Cup A time, but it was a personal best by ten seconds,” Albanese said.

For some athletes on the team, it will be their first event as seniors coming up from the junior level.  One such athlete is freshman Alena Fiorenza out of Wausau, Wisc.  She is not really worried about the jump in levels because a lot of the junior girls skate as seniors anyway so it will not be anything new for her.

“I never compare myself to other athletes, I compare to what I’ve done in the best.  I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to stay with the pack this year and make finals and semi-finals,” Fiorenza said.

She also attributes her improvement and success to the intense training at the USOEC.

“I was at a plateau training at home and now up here I’m improving a lot and I’m excited to see where I will place now that I have been training up here since June.  The transition is tough from two to six practices a week; it took a few weeks for me to adjust to this kind of training but I’m glad I stuck it out because I feel I’ve grown as an athlete and not just a skater,” Fiorenza said.

An athlete who is coming off of a building season is Brett Perry from Midland, Michigan. Perry is a senior at Marquette Senior High School who joined the USOEC team to get the advantage in his sport.

“This is the only place to train full time and still get an education. We are very privileged and I am very grateful to be here,” Perry said.

Perry did mention the training and being on his own took a while to get used to. Perry is originally from Midland, Michigan, so he moved away from home at the age of 16 and is now living by his coach’s team rules and USOEC standards.

“Last year was a building year for me, getting used to the environment and training schedule. Now this year I am going to improve.  I don’t go out and party, and my parents raised me with good morals so even though they are so far away I don’t feel that there is a lack of parental supervision,” Perry said.

Overall the USOEC speedskating team seems to be confident and prepared for the American Cup Saturday, Oct. 2 and Sunday, Oct. 3 at the Pettit Center.