CHAMPIONSHIPS
Round robin standings: Men:
Craig Brown (Madison, Wis.)
2014 U.S. national champions (l-r) Pete Fenson, Shawn Rojeski, Joe Polo, and Ryan Brunt.
2014 U.S. national champions (l-r) Nina Spatola, Becca Hamilton, Tara Peterson, and Sophie Brorson.
Spatola, Fenson pave the way to national titles in Philadelphia
By Rick Patzke, Assistant Editor
the men’s gold medal game of the 2014 USA Curl- ing National Championships presented by Labatt at IceWorks Arena on March 8. Take nothing away from the championship-win-
A
ning performance of Pete Fenson (Bemidji, Minn.) and teammates Shawn Rojeski (Chisholm, Minn.), Joe Polo (Duluth, Minn.), Ryan Brunt (Portage, Wis.), who jumped ahead early on the team of Craig Brown (Madison, Wis.), Kroy Nernberger (Madi- son, Wis.), Matt Hamilton (McFarland, Wis.) and Jon Brunt (Portage, Wis.) and, like a sumo wrestler, never let up on the way to a 9-3 victory. Fenson’s team shot 96 percent overall, with vice
skip Rojeski at 100 percent. Tat compares with a 73-percent team average for Brown’s team. “Yesterday I told the guys that tomorrow we have
the chance to play our greatest game of the week,” said Fenson, now an eight-time national champion (sixth as skip). “I knew they would play in front of me.” Like Peyton Manning’s missed snap in the open-
ing seconds of the Super Bowl, the tone of this game was set early, when Brown uncharacteristically missed a draw for one in the first end that resulted in a steal of two for Fenson’s team. Tis quickly eliminated the last-rock advantage Brown’s team had started the game with and also seemed to light a fire under Fenson’s foursome. “I threw it exactly how I wanted and how the
sweepers wanted,” Brown said of the shot. “I threw draws to the button in practice. I threw the split time needed, and it died. It could have been on a little different track, or we misjudged the speed of the rock.” “Aſter the first end, Pete’s team had a sense of in-
vincibility,” Brown added. “Aſter that, they played pretty much perfectly.” “It’s unlike Craig to miss,” Fenson said of the
s sometimes happens, the biggest game of a tournament can also be the most anti-climactic. Such was the case in
two-time national champion who finished atop the round robin. “It surprised us. But our job is to stay in the game and play our best throughout.” In a gold medal game eerily similar to the men’s
semifinal at IceWorks Arena the night before, the Nina Spatola and Allison Pottinger teams were locked up at four apiece playing their final end at the 2014 USA Curling Nationals presented by Labatt. Te outcome was slightly different but no less
dramatic, as Spatola (McFarland, Wis.) and her team of Becca Hamilton (McFarland, Wis.), Tara Peterson (Eagan, Minn.) and Sophie Brorson (Min- neapolis, Minn.) secured the winning point with their second-to-last rock and didn’t need to use the hammer to record a 5-4 victory. “It was the best overall game I have ever played,”
said Spatola, who also won the national title in 2010, playing vice skip for Erika Brown. “Te stakes were so high, with me returning as skip, and playing such an experienced team. Tere were a lot of intense mo- ments.” Ten-time national champion and two-time
Olympian Pottinger (Eden Prairie, Minn.) was denied another nameplate on the national trophy, but took consolation in that she and teammates Nicole Joraanstad (Verona, Wis.), Natalie Nichol- son (Bemidji, Minn.) and Tabitha Peterson (Eagan, Minn.) represented the USA at the 2014 Ford World Women’s Curling Championship based on earning the most points seasonlong under the High Per- formance Program’s new world team qualification system. “We came here to win a national champion- ship,” said Pottinger. “It was really important to win the Nationals, and we fell short of our goal. We’re thrilled to be going to the Worlds, but we wanted to cap it off with the national championship.” Pottinger’s team seemed poised to steal in the
10th aſter a great draw by Nicholson and tapback by Joraanstad to leave them with shot rock biting the top of the button, behind a guard. When Hamilton cleared the guard, Pottinger replaced it with her first shot. But aſter a timeout with Coach Doug Pot-
Heath McCormick (Sarnia, Ontario) Pete Fenson (Bemidji, Minn.) Brady Clark (Lynnwood, Wash.) John Shuster (Duluth, Minn.) Tyler George (Duluth, Minn.) Alex Leichter (Wayland, Mass.) Peter Stolt (Plymouth, Minn.) Paul Pustovar (Hibbing, Minn.) Eric Fenson (Bemidji, Minn.) Women:
Allison Pottinger (Eden Prairie, Minn.) Cassie Potter (St. Paul, Minn.) Nina Spatola (McFarland, Wis.) Courtney George (St. Paul, Minn.) Alex Carlson (Wayzata, Minn.) Sarah Anderson (Broomall, Pa.) Caitlin Maroldo (Rochester, N.Y.)
Gabrielle Coleman (Mountain View, Calif.) Amy Lou Anderson (St. Paul, Minn.) Abigayle Lindgren (Grand Forks, N.D.)
Ann Brown Sportsmanship Award winners: Female: Teresa Hoffoss, Team A. Anderson Male: Josh Bahr, Team E. Fenson
Page Playoffs, 1 v. 2: *Allison Pottinger 301 110 100 1 – 8 Cassie Potter
*Craig Brown
Page Playoffs, 3 v. 4: *Nina Spatola
Courtney George *Pete Fenson
Brady Clark
Semifinals: *Cassie Potter Nina Spatola
Heath McCormick 010 201 101 0 – 6
002 102 302 x – 10 000 010 030 x – 4
200 110 102 x – 7 001 002 010 x – 4
010 101 010 x – 4 201 010 203 x – 9
*Heath McCormick 101 010 010 0 – 4 Pete Fenson
000 101 101 1 – 5
Finals: *Allison Pottinger 001 001 101 0 – 4 Nina Spatola
*Craig Brown Pete Fenson
*last rock in first end
tinger, Spatola’s team seized the moment and drew the winning point to the button before the opposi- tion could completely close the door. Spatola’s shot covered the pin, with rocks behind
it so Pottinger’s team could not simply play another raise. Teir only hope was to try to come down to it with enough weight to move it back and somehow get first count. Tey made a valiant try but the stone glided wide of the button and Spatola’s team had its first national championship. At the 2014 world championships, Pottinger’s
rink finished sixth in Saint John, New Brunswick, while Fenson’s team was 10th in Beijing, China. Read more about those events in the bonus pages of this edition in the digital version. n
Continued on Page 13 * USA Curling (( 11
000 110 020 1 – 5 010 100 1xx x – 3
203 022 0xx x – 9
010 001 022 0 – 6 101 020 010 2 – 7
7-2 7-2 6-3 6-3 5-4 4-5 3-6 3-6 2-7 2-7
7-2 7-2 7-2
6-3* 6-3 4-5 3-6 3-6 1-8 1-8
* George defeated Carlson in a tiebreaker game, 10-7
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