Home Other Team USA Men’s, Featuring Four St. Louisans, Wins Men’s Roller Derby World Cup

Team USA Men’s, Featuring Four St. Louisans, Wins Men’s Roller Derby World Cup

by Brian Ledford

(CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA) Four members of St. Louis-based GateKeepers Roller Derby assisted in Team USA Men’s first place finish at the 2016 Men’s Roller Derby World Cup, held at Calgary’s Acadia Recreation Complex Thursday through Sunday.

gk at mrdwc

Photo Credit: Kayla Woodward

Local skaters Tony Correnti, Brian McAfee, Scott Meyer and Jake Woodward collected gold medals as Team USA Men’s finished the weekend 6-0 and claimed back-to-back World Cup trophies.

The second installment of the four-day event featured 20 international teams. In Thursday’s “knockout round” that featured round-robin, thirty–minute games, Team USA Men’s thumped Scotland (252-3) and Japan (280-0) to collect a pair of opening-day wins.

Friday’s action saw Team USA Men’s continue its dominance with dukes over Ireland (292-7) and Finland (234-5) to advance to the event’s structured quarterfinals.

Saturday’s contests, now competing in a standard sixty-minute format, saw Team USA Men’s notch a 490-45 win over Argentina in the quarterfinals and a 356-89 triumph over Australia in the semifinals.

Photo Credit: Kayla Woodward

Photo Credit: Kayla Woodward

In Sunday’s MRDWC finale, Team USA Men’s won the trophy with a 212-143 triumph over Team England Men’s.

Correnti and Meyer, both members of the 2014 championship team, earned repeated gold medals in the 69-point win while McAfee and Woodard claimed inaugural hardware as first-time members to the squad.

All four athletes skate for the GateKeepers’ travel squad, the current defending champions of the Men’s Roller Derby Association (MRDA). The locals are currently undefeated (8-0) and are projected to be the top seed for the governing body’s international championships held in Texas in October.

Image Credit: Adam Hecker

Image Credit: Adam Hecker

The league will host an exhibition on September 17 at Midwest Sport Hockey in Ballwin.

For more information on GateKeepers Roller Derby, go to its official Facebook page.

 

 

Related Articles