Winners from Wausau
A new region reigns at the Arena National Championship
The USA Curling National Championship season begins and ends with two very similar groups of curlers. Realistically, it may be the two most enthusiastic groups of curlers in the country. The season ends with the 5-and-Under National Championship, and it begins with arguably the most dedicated curlers of them all. The curlers who often find themselves driving long distances only to freeze in hacks, pebble freshly zamboni’d ice, and pull rocks out of the freezer. The arena curlers.
From everything I was able to see, it looks like Wausau Curling Club did a great job celebrating arena curlers last week as they hosted the 2024 USA Curling Arena National Championships. And by the end of the week, a whole region of arena curlers was celebrating its rise to the top of the disclipline.
The weekend was the full embodiment of arena curling. We had clutch shots, lopsided scores, major upsets, and most importantly, a lot of good curling.
While I wasn’t able to watch as many draws live as I wanted to (I was bonspieling at a fundraiser for Orange County Curling Club’s dedicated ice campaign), thanks to Wausau Curling Club installing streaming at their club, I was able to catch up on what I missed.
Readers, if you’d love to see any shots from arena nationals, a 5U qualifier, or a regional playdown highlighted in a future Substack post, email a clip to me at hoppecurls@gmail.com!
Also, be sure to read all the way to the end of this post where I have a link to my appearance on the Curling Nation podcast!
Women’s Championship
Winners
Gold: Team Asis - Silicon Valley Curling Club (Mountain Pacific)
Silver: Team Segovia - Curling Club of Houston (Mid-America)
Bronze: Team Feldman - Wine Country Curling Club (Mountain Pacific)
For the first time since 2016, a team from the MoPac region ascended to the top spot on the podium at Arenas. To be the best, you have to beat the best, and Team Asis (Jennifer Asis, Melissa Wheeler, Julie Wolf, Jaclyn Pytlarz, Kathalin Alsmeier) did just that, overcoming reigning 3-time champion Curling Club of Houston in the final. I thought based on how Asis ran through the field last year, they could give Segovia a run for her money this year, which is why I picked Asis to win it all.
The final was a great game. I’d recommend watching the whole game. I thought it was a really great display from both teams on situational decision-making, knowing when to keep things open, and when to play aggressively behind guards.
Heather Cook made important doubles, Alyssa Parks made some really precise rolls, and I thought the in-shot communication from the entire Asis team was really impressive. This game featured two skips who call a great game and eight curlers who make a ton of shots.
A few key ends tipped the scales in favor of the Silicon Valley squad. In the 3rd end, Team Asis utilized guards and angles to their advantage and scored 3 following an open draw from the skip, Jennifer Asis. In the 5th, they were able to blank to take hammer into the even ends. And tied in the 8th with hammer, Silicon Valley was able to be the first team to get a rock into the 4’ which Houston was not able to match. These seem to be two very evenly matched teams. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a rematch of this final again in the future.
I’d recommend watching the whole game. I thought it was a really great display from both teams on situational decision-making, knowing when to keep things open, and when to play aggressively behind guards.
I’m sure it stings in the present, but I hope at some point the curlers from Team Segovia (Julie Segovia, Alyssa Parks, Heather Cook, Jessica Bostwick, Alison Miller) can reflect on what they achieved not just through 2023, but in 2024 as well. They had two tight games in the round robin, but otherwise looked to be on cruise control going into what would be a tough matchup in the final. Winning a silver medal at any national championship is a huge achievement.
Team Feldman (Katie Feldman, Lee Ann Shearing, Melissa McGuire, Amy Putnam) put together an impressive run at arena nationals yet again. For the 5th straight year, the team has made it to the bronze medal match, and they walk away from Wausau with their 3rd bronze during that stretch. The team only dropped two games all weekend, and those came to the gold and silver medal winners.
In the bronze medal match, the curlers from Wine Country Curling Club had a tight game with both teams exchanging single points until the 6th end. The Feldman rink put a ton of pressure on the team from Cleveland in that end and wound up stealing 3 to effectively seal their bronze medal victory.
Notable Notes
Mewers Shuffles with 3
Team Mewers, the composite team representing MoPac, ended up only playing with 3 players all week. Lead Anne Bonache was tapped to go to the Pan-Continental Curling Championships B-Division as a member of Team Philippines, and the team was unable to name a replacement on short notice. To make matters even more complicated, in one of their first games, vice Kyra Manayan appeared to deal with a medical situation which resulted in her throwing lead stones and skipping for their last few games, moving Tessa Brockie to 2nd and Queena Mewers to sweep middle rocks. Considering all these women had to juggle this week, they put together an incredible week, qualifying for the playoffs.
A Surprising Early Upset
I was genuinely surprised when I noticed Team Asis dropped their first game to Team Avery from Boise Curling Club. Three of the four curlers on Team Avery have been curling together for nearly 10 years, and that comfort level with each other showed on the ice this weekend. After upsetting the eventual gold medalists, they lost a nailbiter to Mewers in their 2nd game of the weekend and only missed out on playoffs because of that head-to-head tiebreaker. I hope this team can make it back next year. With championship experience under their belts, I could see them making a run in 2025.
Men’s Championship
Winners
Gold: Team Spangler - Wine Country Curling Club (Mountain Pacific)
Silver: Team Ridder - Aksarben Curling Club (Mid-America)
Bronze: Team Curtis - Rocket City Curling Club (Grand National)
We’ve seen a lot of MACA (Mid-America Curling Association) on top of the podium over the years in the men’s event. This year, MoPac took over. Team Spangler (Camren Spangler, William Hillman, Brian Feldman Jr., Brian Feldman Sr.) from Wine Country looked sharp all weekend, with their only loss coming in round robin play to reigning 4-time champion Team Myers. Each of their wins was decided by at least 3 points, and aside from the game against Myers, Team Preiss was the only other team that was able to prevent them from jumping out to a big start early. While I had picked Spangler to take bronze, they absolutely earned the gold in their matchup against Team Ridder.
As in most of their games, Spangler got off to a hot start, converting with hammer in each of their first 3 tries while forcing Ridder in the 2nd and 4th ends (Ridder’s first shot in the 4th to sit 1 was excellent). The front-end duo of Hillman and Feldman Jr. really performed well both with shot making and their sweeping throughout, but especially early in the game.
Experienced Aksarben skip Dave Hill subbed in after the 5th end to call the remainder of the game, and the Nebraska rink was subsequently able to earn a 3 with hammer in the 6th. The 7th end was really fantastic, especially late. Aksarben managed to sit 2 late in the 7th thanks to fantastic sweeper Nic Swiercek holding the line on Ridder’s first, but Spangler made a double right back. Ridder’s draw went deep to the back 4 to sit shot, and Spangler followed it right down for the single point. I’d highly recommend watching the last half of the end if you’ve got 5 minutes. Up 3 without, Spangler was able to run Ridder out of rocks in the 8th to secure gold.
All in all, this weekend can’t be seen as anything other than a huge success for the curlers out of Omaha. Team Ridder (Nic Ridder, Nic Swiercek, Doug Michel, Sean Morrison, Dave Hill) managed to claim the final spot in the 6-team playoff, tied for 3rd with a 2-3 round robin record, and they made the most out of their opportunity with victories over Betts in the quarterfinals and a revenge-win over Tesch in the semis. They head home to Aksarben with silver around their necks, and for their sake, hopefully only ~2 years more eligibility for arena nationals.
In the 3rd place matchup, Team Curtis would bring home the first national championship medals (please correct me if I’m wrong) for Rocket City Curling Club. Rocket City, founded in 2018 in Huntsville, AL, has been a growing presence in the southeast, and they got a shoutout on their local news for bringing home the bronze hardware!
If there were any nerves for this team, it certainly didn’t show. They started out the playoffs surprising many by defeating Team Myers handily in the quarterfinals. Against last year’s bronze medalist, Team Tesch, in the 3rd place game, Curtis challenged Tesch with some challenges shots right away in the first end and wound up getting a steal of 4. After Tesch battled back with a couple hammer conversions in the 2nd and 4th ends, Curtis would get a conversion for 2 in the 5th and another steal of 2 in the 6th to take a commanding lead and not look back.
Notable Notes
The Reign of MACA Has Ended
Through their first 4 games, Team Myers looked primed to be getting gold for the 5th year in a row, outscoring opponents 43-10 in those games. And then in the final game of round robin play, they dropped a game to Wine Country’s Team Betts which dropped them to the 3rd seed due to a 3-way tie for 1st. Perhaps even more surprisingly, they were shut out in the quarterfinals by Rocket City’s Team Curtis. It was a shocking way for the run to end, with Team Curtis putting relentless pressure on the DFW rink. Watching the MACA arena playdowns in 2025 is going to be fascinating, indeed.
New Champions, Additional Spots at Nationals?
The MoPac region has traditionally had the highest turnout for its Arena Nationals playdowns of any region. As a result, they’ve usually been the primary region receiving an additional berth in years where Alaska does not send a team to nationals. With the champion getting an automatic berth to nationals, MoPac is already guaranteed to have 2 teams for both men and women representing them in 2025. Will high team turnouts result in MoPac getting a 3rd team for men or women next year? Only time will tell.
Coming Up Next
With the arena national championships behind us, the focus now turns (at least for me), to 5-and-Under qualifiers and club playdowns. We’ve already had one team qualify for the 5U National Championship, and more to come starting this weekend. Before we ring in 2025, 9 teams will have already booked their ticket to 5U Nationals, and club teams representing the Wisconsin and Mid-America regions will have been determined.
In a couple weeks, I’ll talk more about the teams who have already booked their ticket to St. Paul for the 2025 5U national championship, and what qualifying lies ahead for the remainder of 2024.
If you’re looking for some more curling content from me, I had the pleasure of joining Joel, Craig, and Mike on the Curling Nation podcast this week. Give it a watch or listen (also available wherever you find podcasts) to hear more of my curling story, the weirdest thing I’ve won at a bonspiel, and just how much I love curling on arena ice (the interview starts at 34:05).
Another good sign of the health of Arena Curling National Championships is the inauguration of the Qualifier bonspiel as a last chance for any arena curling teams to secure a spot to compete in ACNC.