The brand new Huskies Curl Curling Club has won the USA College Curling Midwest Regional Championship. This victory secures a spot to represent Michigan Tech at the National Championship next month in Rice Lake, WI. Teams are ranked by the number of points they have accumulated over the season. Michigan Tech has 75 points and is ranked first in the Midwest, and third in the nation behind Pennsylvania State University with 103 points and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with 81 points.
The winning team at Regionals consisted of Gracie Kohn, Rese Elza, Bryce Doering, and Tyler Magnuson. This is Magnuson’s first year of curling, and he was a little nervous to be competing against the top teams in the Midwest. Magnuson went on to say, “With this team we have such a great dynamic that I knew we could win.”
Going head to head against the top schools proved to be nerve-racking for the team. “There were a couple of very close games, even coming down to the last shot, which was definitely stressful,” said Kohn. These heightened levels of stress made the outcome even better for Kohn, who said that it “felt amazing after winning Regionals.”
Before heading to Regionals, the biggest obstacle standing in the way of Huskies Curl was the weather. The club practices at the Copper Country Curling Club in Calumet, an old renovated drill house with the only natural ice entirely dedicated to curling in America. Just like with the Broomball ice rinks, having any ice for the club to practice on is highly dependent on the weather being cold enough. Now that temperatures have come down, the club is able to practice again just in time for Nationals on Mar. 8-10.
Another hurdle the club had to overcome this season was the distance from Michigan Tech to each bonspiel, the name for a curling tournament or competition. The closest bonspiels the club competed in were four to five hours away in Wisconsin, while others involved going as far as Nebraska. Competing in and winning bonspiels is important as it is how teams acquire points for their ranking. Teams that do not win at regional competitions can still qualify for Nationals if they have enough points.
More information about Huskies Curl can be found on Involvement Link at https://www.involvement.mtu.edu/organization/huskiescurl, and more informationabout the upcoming National Championships can be found at https://collegecurlingusa.org/.
