Hitting the Jackpot
Recapping the 2025 Arena National Championships
The first national championship of the 2025-2026 season is officially in the books from the newest dedicated ice in the country. 24 teams from 15 states descended on CurlVegas in Las Vegas, Nevada.
It’s difficult to fully explain how important this event is. In my opinion, it goes beyond providing a space for the top curlers in the country who do not have access to dedicated curling ice. It highlights a group of people who pour so much into the Roaring Game.
Arena curlers have to negotiate with arenas and regularly deal with awful draw times. They are freezing in the hacks and carrying out rocks before teaching a learn to curl or corporate event, if they’re fortunate enough to be able to offer those services. Arena clubs have to look for unique ways to grow the game, and they are often successful though it takes blood, sweat, and tears. Much of the growth we’re seeing in curling in the United States is because of arena clubs.
This championship is for them.
Congratulations to CurlVegas for achieving the dream of so many arena curlers. The opportunity to host this event is so well earned, and kudos for giving us the most unique (but fitting!) ceremonial draws I’ve ever seen to open the championship.
Hopefully all the curlers were big winners off the ice this past week. Let’s dive into who hit the jackpot on the ice!
Women’s Championship
Winners
Gold: Team Andenas-Weber - Sioux Falls Curling Club (Dakota)
Silver: Team Robertson - Dallas-Fort Worth Curling Club (Mid-America)
Bronze: Team Asis - Silicon Valley Curling Club (Mountain Pacific)
Morgan Andenas-Weber and team were a late addition to the field and came out of peer seeding with the bottom seed of Pool A. They opened the event dropping their first two games. It feels safe to say their third consecutive appearance at this event started as their most emotionally draining, but the team overcame every challenge that came their way.
After dropping those two initial games of pool play, the women’s rink from Sioux Falls, South Dakota rattled off three straight wins to close out pool play and qualify for the playoffs. They managed to win another three after that to claim the first ever arena gold for a team from the Dakota Territory.
The Mid-America (MACA) and Mountain Pacific (MoPac) regions have generally dominated this event. While those two traditional powerhouse regions duked it out in their half of the semifinal, Andenas-Weber bested perennial playoff contender, Team Mercer of Ohio, on the other side of the bracket.
The final was a very impressive showing from the Sioux Falls curlers, especially the skip Morgan Andenas-Weber. After giving up a steal in the first end, Andenas-Weber arrived at skip stones looking at an open house with one Robertson rock behind the tee-line. Instead of opting for the safer play to hit that lone rock in the house, the skipper went aggressive by calling (and making) a freeze to sit one. After the her opponent's last rock sailed a hair too far, Andenas-Weber made the draw for a skip’s deuce.
Following an excellent double by Robertson to blank the third end, the Sioux Falls rink put a lot of pressure on the Texas team and earned a steal of one, going into the halftime break with a 3-1 lead. After exchanging forces of one in the next two ends, Robertson needed to get aggressive in the 7th down two with hammer.
Going into skip stones, Morgan Andenas-Weber was facing three Texas stones in the 4-foot circle, but she continued her impressive game with a fantastic hit-and roll to move all three reds and get shot rock. This shot ultimately set up a steal of two in the 7th end, and Team Andenas-Weber ran Team Robertson out of rocks.
Both teams had an excellent week, and kudos to Team Robertson for their run to the finals with some fantastic shot-making along the way. By reaching the finals, it meant the fourth consecutive appearance in the finals at the Arena National Championship for Team Robertson’s second, Heather Cook.
In the bronze medal match, reigning champions Team Asis of Silicon Valley took the win over Cleveland Skating Club’s Team Mercer. Despite starting in a 5-0 deficit after three ends, Asis stormed back with scores of multiple points in the 4th, 6th, 7th, and 8th ends to bring home their third medal in three years. In the last four years, Silicon Valley has seen their rink finish 4th, 2nd, 1st, and now 3rd to complete the collection of Arena National Championship hardware!
Men’s Championship
Winners
Gold: Team Myers - Dallas-Fort Worth Curling Club (Mid-America)
Silver: Team Ridder - Aksarben Curling Club (Mid-America)
Bronze: Team Spangler - Wine Country Curling Club (Mountain Pacific)
Seeing the level of play at the Arena National Championship take a step-up year-over-year has been a joy to watch. This year was no exception, with the event continuing to showcase excellent shot-making. It’s an excellent example of a rising tide lifting all boats.
Team Myer (DFW Curling Club) and Team Ridder (Aksarben Curling Club) rode the highest waves of the week, going undefeated in pool play and then winning their semifinal matchups in convincing fashion. That doesn’t mean it was easy, though.
Team Ridder needed extra ends to win two of their pool play games. Meanwhile, Team Myers required an extra end against Rochester’s Team Russell, and it looked like they were headed toward another extra end or a regulation loss against Rocket City’s Team Curtis until Team Myers made what might have been the shot of the week in the 7th end. It was an incredible line call from Laith Sando and a great sweep from the front end — a perfect example of a team shot.
Canada may have the Battle of the Brads, but viewers of Arena Nationals got to see the Nexus of the Nic(k)s (sorry, this is the best I could do). The five-time Arena National Champion, Nick Myers from Texas, versus the reigning silver medalists Nic Ridder and Nic Swiercek from Nebraska. The two teams from the Mid-America region faced each other in pool play at the regional playdowns, where Myers won 6-2.
Round two had a gold medal on the line, and it was a barnburner of a final. The final began as a back-and-forth contest with Myers taking a 3-2 lead into the break. It looked like we were headed for another force and a tie game in the 5th end until Nick Myers made an excellent double run-tap to sit one and leave Aksarben shot-caller Dave Hill and fourth Nic Ridder with basically nothing on their last rock.
Aksarben was not done yet, though. Third Nic Swiercek made a perfect hit and roll to spin up and buried under a DFW stone which set up a deuce for the Aksarben rink to tie the game after six ends. The Texas rink punched right back in the seventh when Myers made a short angle-run for two on his last. DFW kept the house clean in the 8th, and they were able to run Aksarben out of rocks to secure the victory and reclaim the top of the podium.
The champions gain an automatic berth into the following season’s championship, but it’s entirely possible this is the last time this sixth championship for Nick Myers is his last if Dallas-Fort Worth is able to secure dedicated ice. For the sake of all curlers in the DFW metroplex, I feel good about rooting for their ineligibility for arena nationals next year!
Reigning gold medalists, Team Spangler of Wine Country, continued the trend set by Team Asis, following their gold with a bronze medal finish. They can take their hardware home with heads held high with the only two losses coming to Myers and Ridder. In the bronze medal game, Spangler gave up a steal of one in the first, but then took two with hammer in the second end and never looked back, securing their victory over Team Shlimovitz of Grand Rapids, Mich. by a score of 7-3.
Notable Notes from the Week!
Wine Country Rink Share a Common Thread
In case you missed it, USA Curling shared an excellent story about Team Connelly of Wine Country Curling Club. Three of the team members are breast cancer survivors, and they had a very strong showing in Las Vegas, qualifying for the playoffs in their championship debut. I recommend checking out the article — these women and the community they found (and built!) are a shining example of what makes our sport great!
Talkeetna Gets Win in First Championship Event
Team Bouch of Talkeetna, Alaska was the first ever team from Alaska to compete in the Arena National Championships. The Talkeetna Curling Club curl out of a covered, outdoor rink at the local elementary school, and in their first time curling outside of the state of Alaska, earned their first victory at a national championship with a 7-4 victory in their penultimate game of round robin play.
Regions Cup Standings
Throughout the season, I expect we will see USA Curling announce the standings for the Regions Cup, but I will also work to keep my own unofficial standings. As a quick refresher, points are awarded (25, 18, 13, 10, 8 , 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1) based on a region’s finish at four national championships: Arena, U18, Club, and Mixed Fours. If a region has multiple teams, only the highest ranked team accumulates points, but the lower ranked team from a region can move other regions down.
In the case of the men’s event, where MACA finished first and second. The MACA region earned 25 points, and no team earned 18 points. The MoPac region earned 13 points for their third-place finish. Here are the current very unofficial Regions Cup standings.
The Midwest owns the tiebreaker over Pacific Northwest with a better cumulative Win-Loss record. Full points standards can be found in their September release and tiebreakers were shared in the original release.
The next Regions Cup event will be the U18 National Championships in January.
Stones & Stripes will be back in a couple of weeks to recap the second 5U qualifier of the season! November through January will be a bit crazy with this year having a compressed schedule due to the Olympics, so I will have to see how frequently I can get out newsletters when everything gets into full swing.
As always, thank you for subscribing, and good curling!