A Different Dropkin Championship
Korey isn't the only Dropkin who won a championship recently
With the USA Curling National Championships wrapped up in Duluth, the busiest month of the season is behind us. In the month of January (and first 2 days of February) we had five 5-and-Under qualifiers, seven regional playdowns, countless other spiels across the country, and it all wrapped up with two extra end national championship finals.
(Rumor has it Korey Dropkin didn’t want to fly with his broom to the Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials in Colorado, so he just threw it there instead after his amazing shot to win nationals.)
In this newsletter, we’re just going to focus on the club playdowns and 5U qualifiers since my last post. One of the things I love about putting this together is the chance to see shots I might have otherwise missed, and hopefully I can share those with you. Do yourself a favor and check out the clip I linked at the end of the GNCC men’s club playdown. Shots like that are part of the reason I love doing this newsletter.
If there are other shots you think I’ve missed out on, go ahead and email a clip to me at hoppecurls@gmail.com
Let’s get to it.
Club Playdowns Results
Minnesota
Women’s Champion: Team Stolt (St. Paul Curling Club)
Women’s Runner-Up: Team Berg (Bemidji Curling Club)
The Minnesota playdown out of Bemidji featured some fascinating games all week on both the men’s and women’s sides. The ice ran relatively straight based on what I could see on stream, but it was lightning quick which created some interesting scenarios across the board.
Four teams played down for the Minnesota women’s state championship which meant a double round-robin over the course of 4 days. Early on, it sure looked to me like the junior women’s team, Berg, playing out of their home club were going to take the championship. They defeated Maureen Stolt and went undefeated in the first round of round robin.
Team Stolt would return the favor in the second round robin, and the two teams found themselves tied at 5-1 at the conclusion of play which meant a winner-take-all tiebreaker. In the final, everything seemed to go Team Stolt’s way. The St. Paul rink took two with hammer and then went on to steal the next four ends before Berg made a nice run to score 1 in the 6th. At that point, it was handshakes, and Team Stolt found themselves needing to make plans to go to Milwaukee.
Little did we know at the time, this is would not be the most prominent win with a Dropkin in the season. I would guess Shelley Dropkin, who threw lead rocks and viced in Bemidji, enjoyed last week in Duluth even more.
Men’s Champion: Team Polo (Duluth Curling Club)
Men’s Runner-Up: Team DeVore (Duluth Curling Club)
Speaking of Duluth, it was quite the playdowns for the Duluth men’s teams in Bemidji. With 11 teams competing on the men’s side, the field was split into a pool of 5 and a pool of 6.
Joe Polo did not play in one of their pool play games, and that ended up being the only game Team Polo lost the entire week. That doesn’t mean it was easy - it seemed like every game for the eventual champions was a tight game with 3 of their 5 games being won by 1 or 2 points.
In the other pool, Phil DeVore’s rink advanced to the playoffs based on a head-to-head tiebreaker for 2nd place in the pool. Both Polo and DeVore won their semifinal matchups handily.
Team Polo started off the final with a 3-ender in the first, but much like the rest of their week, nothing came easy. Up 5-2 in the 5th end without hammer, Polo needed to make a tough slash double to prevent DeVore from scoring two. Then in the 6th, the skipper tapped their opponent’s rock into his own to the pin to take the single and a 6-3 lead going into the 7th. From there, they were hold on to become the first team to represent Duluth at club nationals since 2011 (h/t to Sean Gallagher for that nugget).
The Polo rink figures to be a top contender in Milwaukee with a number of notable names. Joe is an Olympian and most recently played with Team Dropkin until he stepped away from the top circuit in 2022. Vice Matt Mellin is the reigning 5-and-Under national champion.
Front enders Sam Thiesse and Derek Benson are likely working on regrowing their fingernails after watching their spouses compete at the USA Curling National Championship in Duluth this past week.
Midwest
Women’s Champion: Team Yaple (Chicago Curling Club)
With only one team signed up on the women’s side out of the Midwest Curling Association, Team Yaple was awarded the berth at the club national championship. Haley Yaple and vice Sara Gaum competed together at the 2023 championship in Wausau and look to make a splash when they make the drive up the shores of Lake Michigan in March.
Men’s Champion: Team Wright (Exmoor Curling Club)
Men’s Runner-Up: Team Murphy (Chicago Curling Club)
The men’s side did have 5 teams signed up this year for their regional playdown which took place at Exmoor Curling Club. For the second year in a row, Team Wright of Exmoor earned the right to represent the Midwest Curling Association at club nationals.
It was a tight battle across the event this year. Jeff Wright’s advanced by virtue of a 3-1 round robin record, with their only loss coming to 2023 Midwest representative Colin Rittgers. Teams Rittgers, Murphy, and Miller ended the playdown in a 3-way tie for second with Murphy taking the runner-up position via draw shot challenge tiebreaker.
Grand National
Women’s Champion: Team Bera (Potomac Curling Club)
Women’s Runner-Up: Team Atkinson (Potomac Curling Club)
Like the Minnesota playdown, the women’s side for the GNCC club playdowns had 4 teams playing a double round robin format. And also like the Minnesota playdowns, the top two teams were tied through 6 games, having split their two matches against each other.
The two Potomac teams matched up against each other on their home ice with matching 4-2 records. The final was close through the first half with Atkinson stealing two in the first, and Team Bera (Nicole Bera, Laura Yee, Jessica Harsono, Lauren Luethy) converting with hammer for two in the second end. The teams traded forces in the next two ends.
Unfortunately for Atkinson, nothing went right coming out of the 4th end break. A heavy draw against 3 counters in the 5th led to a steal of 3 for Bera, and then a rock that looked like it picked when drawing against 4 led to a steal of 4 in the 6th. Just like that, a tight game ended with handshakes after 6, and Potomac’s Team Bera earned their trip to the land of Spotted Cow.
Men’s Champion: Team Leichter (Broomstones Curling Club)
Men’s Runner-Up: Team Palmeri (Triangle Curling Club)
The story of the 2025 championship might be the number of curlers who have competed at the USA Curling National Championships. With Minnesota adding to the tally, the GNCC added a couple curlers of their own who have curled at the highest level in the country.
The GNCC ran a full round robin for a 9-team men’s playdown, so I can only imagine those who competed last weekend are still recovering. Team Leichter (Alex Leichter, Ryan Hallisey, Jared Wydysh, Ben Clark) went undefeated through the round robin, with only one game going to a full 8 ends, a one-point victory over Benjo Delarmente’s Potomac rink.
Triangle’s Palmeri Rink dropped two games over the week to take the runner-up spot out of the GNCC. While it was a strong week from them, it wasn’t enough to keep up with the team from Broomstones Curling Club.
As with Team Polo, Leichter is another rink that is going to give the two Dakota teams a run for their money in Milwaukee. Skip Alex Leichter and vice Ryan Hallisey are coming off of a win at the GNCC Mixed Playdowns and played together, so they have a busy national championship slate ahead of them this spring.
What might be one of the best shots of any club playdown event this year came against Team Leichter. Vice Daniel Simard made this incredible run quad to make a nightmare scenario much more dreamlike. It’s worth 30 seconds of your time. Thanks to BlueSky user arandombloke for sharing.
5-and-Under Qualifiers Results
Evergreen 5 & Under (Portland, OR)
Winner: Team Nie (San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club)
Runner-Up: Team Schmidt (Granite Curling Club)
18 teams made their way to the Pacific Northwest to the 3-sheet Evergreen Curling Club for the annual Evergreen 5U. The 5U qualifier made for the third consecutive weekend Evergreen hosted a national qualifying event after the PNWCA club playdowns were hosted there the previous two weeks.
Because it’s an 18-team event hosted at a 3-sheet club (quite the contrast with the 18 teams on 6 sheets at Fairbanks!), the bracket for this event is one of the more unique ones to follow each year.
Nie of SFBACC and Schmidt of Granite both had strong showings in their 3 games preceding the finals, and the final started off as an incredible duel. The teams traded singles for the first three ends. Schmidt was possibly looking at setting up a steal in the 4th until skipper Jason Nie made a nice double on his first rock to sit 2. His front end carried in his final rock of the end for a skip’s deuce to take a 3-2 lead.
After a force in the 5th to tie the game at 3, Nie decided to keep play in the center of the house with hammer and had Schmidt chasing throughout the 6th. Sitting three on his last, Nie made the draw for 4, and Schmidt would shake a few minutes later in the 7th end.
After a runner-up finish at the PNWCA 5U in Seattle last November, Jason Nie became the second team, after Team Dei, to qualify for 5U nationals after a runner-up finish earlier in the season.
Frozen Five & Under (Madison, WI)
Winner: Team Bliven (Appleton/Green Bay Curling Clubs)
Runner-Up: Team Wysocki (Stevens Point Curling Club)
The 40-team Frozen Five & Under is becoming one of the most popular 5U events in the country. The organizers do a really great job combining an event with good 5U competition with a fun party atmosphere. For me, this was the spiel that got me hooked into 5-and-Under curling, and it was the event that helped me learn how to bonspiel.
The field is usually stacked with teams who have already qualified and this year was no different with 4 teams that had already qualified for 5U nationals earlier in the season. The final was a fun one that featured two of those four teams, reigning 5U bronze medalist Dan Bliven and Trevor Wysocki’s rink out of Stevens Point.
After Bliven scored 3 in the second end, Trevor responded with a 4 to take a 5-3 lead. The 3-handed Bliven rink answered right back with a deuce to tie it back up.
With the score still tied after 6, Bliven made a nice downweight tap to sit at least one, and the biter bar made a rare appearance to confirm a score of two. Bliven was able to run Wysocki out of rocks in the 8th to take the spiel victory.
I know there was some talk about two already qualified teams in the qualifier final, essentially opening up a spot for a runner-up team to qualify for 5U nationals from a different spiel. I’ll discuss this more in a future newsletter as there is quite a bit to unpack here. The only other tidbit I’ll add this week is that this year, the Frozen Five was also a USWCA 5U event for the state of Wisconsin, so this final ended up serving as a de facto state 5U championship as well.
Furthest North 5U (Fairbanks, AK)
Winner: Team Mewers (Orange County Curling Club)
Runner-Up: Team Digre (Granite Curling Club)
Curling at Fairbanks is one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had, and it was great to see 18 teams signed up for their 5U qualifier this year with 14 of the teams having members from outside of Alaska traveling to the event.
The field was split into 3 pools of 6, and this event has a more competitive focus with officiating, pre-event practice, the draw shot challenge before every draw to determine hammer. All told, it was a demanding event on both curlers and organizers.
Both Mewers and Digre made it through round robin play undefeated. While Digre got a bye through to the semifinals, Mewers had to battle through a quarterfinal qualifier as well as the semifinal for a long 3-game Sunday.
After Team Digre was forced to one in the 2nd and no guards in play to start the 2nd end, Mewers shifted gears on second’s rocks and decided to use a Digre rock in the top 12 as a guard. They kept bringing play around the red, and Team Digre was so close to having any number of their shots work. Unfortunately, curling is a game of inches, and sometimes those inches work against you.
After Neal Digre’s final rock came in a little too heavy, Queena Mewers made her draw to secure a score of 4. Mewers was able to prevent any big ends or steals as they would go on to secure yet another spot for an arena-based team at 5U nationals.
While Team Digre hasn’t been able to snag a qualifier spot at 5U nationals yet, they are an impressive 15-4 in 5U qualifiers so far this season. If they can find their way to St. Paul, they’ll be a team to watch.
What’s On Tap
Just because club playdowns are largely complete does not mean qualifiers are all done! In the month of February, five more 5-and-Under national qualifiers will take place, starting with the Heather Curling Club 5U Bonspiel in Mapleton, Minnesota this coming weekend.
The next newsletter will likely come at the end of February after all February 5Us have concluded from coast (Belfast) to almost coast (Las Vegas) and everywhere in between (Minnesota, North Dakota, and Ohio).
Hopefully at that point we’ll have more clarity on the Milwaukee men’s representatives for club championships as well as Alaska playdowns.
Don’t forget to tune into the Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials from Rock Creek on Peacock later this month! Be sure to follow The Curling News to see any of my coverage of that event.
Until then, good curling!