From left, Dmytrii Hrushchak (silver) of Ukraine, Bjorn Westervelt (gold) of the U.S., and Wojciech Janik (bronze) of Poland pose on the podium on Thursday, Jan. 19 at Mount Van Hoevenberg after the men’s biathlon 12.5k pursuit during the Lake Placid 2023 FISU Winter World University Games. (Photo by Hailey Trejo/FISU Games)

LAKE PLACID — If someone were to describe Bjorn Westervelt’s performance in the men’s 12.5K biathlon pursuit race on Thursday, Jan. 19, they would probably say “clutch.”

After winning the first-ever FISU Winter World University Games medal in biathlon by a men’s U.S. athlete on Jan. 18, Westervelt one-upped his own result by winning gold in 35 minutes, 38.3 seconds on Jan. 19.

Westervelt said the Jan. 19 race was completely different than his silver medal winning performance the day before.

“Yesterday was mostly a skiing race,” Westervelt said. “Today really comes down to the shooting as well. Just dealing with the pressure of tugging into the range and knowing exactly where you are at mid-race. It’s really awesome.”

Westervelt, of the University of Vermont and Stowe, Vermont, shot 16-for-20 from the shooting stage en route to his win. Ukraine’s Dmytrii Hrushchak won the silver medal in a time of 36:26.3, while Poland’s Wojciech Janik was third in 36:46.4.

Westervelt started in the race in the second place position and remained in podium position for most of the Jan. 19 race.

“I knew what I had to do,” Westervelt said. “I’ve done it before, I just had to make it happen in the race.”

After missing four of his first 15 shots, Westervelt entered the final shooting stage trailing Hrushchak, who at that point hadn’t missed a shot.

But once Hrushchak missed his lone shot of the race and Westervelt shot clean, all he had to do was stay on his feet for the final lap to win gold.

“I knew I was coming into second right there and I knew I had to do it and it just happened,” Westervelt said.

Westervelt said it’s an awesome experience to be the lone men’s U.S. biathlete to medal at the Games.

“I just hope we can keep it rolling into the future,” he said.

Lake Placid native Van Ledger, of Montana State, was the second-fastest U.S. biathlete for the second day in a row. Ledger placed 20th overall in 41:53.1.

“My skiing felt way better,” Ledger said. “I didn’t feel like I died too hard at any point, so that was great. Shooting was a little shakier, but we’re kind of getting towards the end of the week, so it makes sense.”

Ledger, who has made quite an impression as one of the top shooters, turned in a 15-for-20 performance from the shooting stage. He said during the months of September and October he worked on his shooting.

“I made a goal of just dry fire a certain amount of time every week,” Ledger said. “In the past I’ve felt really good skiing, but shot poorly and it didn’t really matter. It feels good to have those months of practicing this to really pay off.”

Nathan Livingood, of Paul Smith’s College and Falmouth, Maine, had the third best results among the U.S. team. He placed 23rd overall in 43:11.6.

Livingood said he was proud of his performance, especially from the shooting stage. He shot 16-for-20.

“I cleaned all my standing targets so I’m happy about that,” Livingood.

Livingood’s result on Thursday was his best so far at the Games. He said his experience so far has been really fun.

“It’s a really hard course so I’m really tired in the back end of the week,” Livingood said, “but I just love having this many competitions to enter.”

The U.S. was rounded out by Cale Woods in 2th place in a time of 44:41.2. Tim Cobb was lapped and didn’t finish with a time, while Matej Cervenka did not start.