news-record.com

WEST ALLIS, Wis. -- High Point's Heather Richardson won the 1,500 meters Saturday to complete a sweep of her three events at the U.S. speedskating long track championships.

Richardson also won the 500- and 1,000-meter events during the meet at the Pettit National Ice Center and qualified for winter World Cup races and the World Sprint Championships in all three events.

Richardson finished the 1,500 in 1 minute, 58.13 seconds Saturday to easily beat Jilleane Rookard (2:00.87). Britany Bowe, who finished second to Richardson in the 500 and 1,000, was third in 2:01.15. Bowe, like Richardson, came to ice speedskating from inline competition, where she was a world champion.

Shani Davis won the men's 500, 1,000 and 1,500 at the long track championships. Davis, who has two Olympic silver medals at 1,500 meters, won Saturday with a time of 1:45.19. That was just shy of the track record of 1:44.67 set by Olympic medalist Chad Hedrick on Oct. 24, 2009. Jonathan Kuck was second Saturday in 1:47.23.

Davis hasn't skated as well as he would have liked this season.

"The problem with me is I'm a perfectionist and also an extremist," Davis said. "I don't need to kill myself. I need to find a fine balance between hard work and prepping myself properly."

The U.S. championships conclude today with the women's 5,000 and men's 10,000 races at the Pettit National Ice Center.