Peak Season
Another supersized newsletter of qualifier results.. and is 5-and-Under normalizing?
Having a front-row seat to 5-and-under curling over the past 4 years has shown a fascinating evolution. Coming out of COVID, 5U spiels would fill, but you could generally get into just about any bonspiel you wanted to as long as you planned ahead. Just two years later, bonspiels across the country were filling almost immediately with waitlists to get in. Even the qualifying event in Fairbanks, Alaska doubled in size in short order.
In the past two seasons, however, we’ve started to see a slight decrease in some bonspiel registrations. Where a few years ago, there were over 120 teams registered for 5U qualifier and non-qualifier bonspiels in one weekend, this season has given us a few different bonspiels that did not entirely fill. What’s the cause?
The most likely reason is that we’re seeing a normalization of what to expect more normally from the 5U demographic. The big surge of 5U curling in 2022-2024 in the US was uniquely timed.
Originally a championship run by the United States Women’s Curling Association, it became a officially sanctioned championship by USA Curling in 2022 which generated even more buzz.
It followed the emergence from COVID and people wanting to get back out to socialize.
The 2018 gold medal from Team Shuster is likely one of the biggest popularity boosts in curling’s history in the United States. Anybody who started curling in 2018 would have had their final year of eligibility in … 2024.
We’re probably seeing those factors contribute to a slight downturn in overall registrations, but that doesn’t mean 5U curling in the United States is less popular. To date, there have been 445 team registrations in qualifier events (this number is slightly inflated due to teams registering for multiple events). We’ll end the season in the ballpark of 600 team registrations across 24 qualifiers.
I will be curious to see what happens in the next two seasons as we see curlers who learned to curl after the 2022 Olympics begin to age out, and as we see the influx of anybody who started curling in 2026 following the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
Who knows, maybe we’ll see another magical medal run to help give another big boost to the sport. I wouldn’t say no to adding in a crazy variable like a gold medal to make understanding 5U fluctuations even more difficult!
Club Playdowns Results
Great Lakes
Women’s Champion: DiBaggio (Mayfield Curling Club)
Women’s Runner-Up: Duby (Midland Curling Club)
The men’s playdown for the Great Lakes region was held earlier in January in Traverse City, and the impressive turnout for the region’s club playdowns continued with 8 teams participating in the women’s event. Held at the 3-sheet Circle City Curling Club, the teams were split into two pools with the respective pool winners, Julia DiBaggio of Mayfield and Jackie Duby of Midland, competing in the final.
The first half of the final was tightly contested, with DiBaggio stealing one in each of the first two ends and ultimately taking a 3-2 lead without the hammer into the 5th end. This, though, is when they hit the gas. The Mayfield skip made a good draw in the 5th end, forcing Jackie Duby into throwing a hit against 4 Mayfield stones. The hit made contact but rolled too far, yielding a steal of two which turned out to be the beginning of the end. Mayfield went on to steal again in 6, 7, and 8 to take a 9-2 victory, earning their spot at the club national championships.
Minnesota
Women’s Champion: Berg (Bemidji Curling Club)
Women’s Runner-Up: Smith (St. Paul Curling Club)
It was only a few weeks ago that Team Berg was on the ice in Lafayette, Colorado pushing Allory Johnson’s rink in the U18 national championship final. After bringing home silver, the curlers from Bemidji added some more 2026 hardware to their trophy case with the Minnesota state championship.
The Berg rink was oh-so-close to taking the state championship last year, and they didn’t let history repeat itself by going 4-1 during the double round-robin. The final draw of play for the 4-team championship was not needed as they had already secured the best record and any possible tiebreakers, just dropping the one game to last year’s Minnesota representatives, Maureen Stolt. Berg also defeated the reigning back-to-back senior women’s champion, Margie Smith, in both round robin games.
Berg will no doubt be a podium contender in Chaska.
Men’s Champion: Dolan (St. Paul Curling Club)
Men’s Runner-Up: Stolt (Four Seasons Curling Club)
Last year, a team skipped by Mark Willmert, a prominent member of the Twin Cities curling community, barely missed out on the Minnesota men’s playoffs. A little more than after those playdowns in Bemidji, Willmert passed unexpectedly, leaving behind a big footprint in Minnesota.
Team Willmert was back on the ice for playdowns this year, this time with Chris Dolan moving into the skip position. With the 12-team field split into two pools, they did not need to worry about tiebreakers after going undefeated in pool play. The Dolank rink’s hot streak continued into the playoffs as the team outscored their opponents in the semifinals and finals by a combined score of 12-3, completing a perfect 7-0 run at the Minnesota state championship and earn a berth at club nationals.
There is no question, they did their teammate proud.
Host (Chaska Curling Club)
Every year, the host site for club nationals receives a berth in the field. In trying to figure out results for the host, Chaska Curling Club, I learned that I was out of the loop! Playdowns were held back in September, so here are the not-so-recent results!
Women’s Champion: Jeannot (Chaska Curling Club)
Women’s Runner-Up: Smith (Chaska Curling Club)
Three teams signed up for the women’s host spot to represent Chaska at club nationals. After a brief three-game round robin, Margie Smith and Lori Jeannot competed in a winner-take-all match. Jeannot wasted no time to make a statement.
Going into her second’s second stone, Jeannot was facing a congested 4-foot-circle with one Smith stone sitting above the tee line and a bundle of rocks around the 4-foot-circle acting as catchers behind the tee line. Lori Jeannot played a game of draws and taps for the second half of the end, further congesting the scoring area but putting more pressure on Smith to make some type of a play on the red scoring stones, and it came out in Jeannot’s favor. Lori was able to make a draw into the 4-foot to score a 4-ender in the first. Smith tried to claw back, but that first end proved to be too much, and Jeannot booked their spot at nationals with an 8-4 victory in 7 ends.
Men’s Champion: Caldwell (Chaska Curling Club)
Men’s Runner-Up: Argil (Chaska Curling Club)
Eight teams competed in the men’s side of Chaska’s host site playdown. It wasn’t clear to me how the draw schedule was determined as I could only find 2-4 games played per team, but in the end it turned out to be the Caldwell rink who came out victorious.
Their key victory was dealing the only loss to the Arlig rink. The game went all 8 ends with Caldwell and Arlig tied at 5 entering the final end, but Caldwell was able to control the front of the house to take the win. They’ll see if they can find any home ice advantage when the rest of the country comes to their ice!
5-and-Under Qualifier Results
MoPac 5-and-Under (Las Vegas, NV)
Winner: Rice (Coyotes Curling Club)
Runner-Up: Hernandez (Orange County Curling Club, CurlVegas)
The busiest 2-week stretch of 5U play kicked off in Nevada with the Mountain Pacific region’s 5-and-Under qualifier. MoPac’s 5U includes one of my favorite traditions, recognizing curlers who are playing in their final season of eligibility. To stick with any hobby or passion for a few years is admirable, and to see people finding themselves no longer eligible for 5-and-Under curling is a great blessing to our community.
On the ice, 15 teams were split into three pools for pool play, with 8 making the playoffs. The field was a strong one with 6 teams that either are already qualified for 2026 nationals or curled at 2025 nationals.
Last year’s 4th-place finisher at nationals, Team Hernandez, took on the already-qualified Team Rice in the finals. Rice was the only team to make it through pool play undefeated, and that undefeated run continued through the playoffs.
In the final, Hernandez jumped out to a 2-1 lead after three ends, but Joe Rice was able to capitalize on an opportunity for a big score in the 4th end. Sitting two with no guards, Rice made his draw to score three and never looked back. He forced Hernandez to 1 in the 5th and then scored two points in each of the final two ends to take an 8-3 victory.
This was Rice’s second 5U victory of the season and improves their team to an impressive 17-1 record across three events.
Frozen Five-and-Under (Madison, WI)
Winner: Papineau (Appleton, Milwaukee Curling Clubs)
Runner-Up: Record (Madison, Milwaukee Curling Clubs)
With two teams now having won two qualifiers apiece (Rice, Wysocki), this all but guaranteed that the runner-up from Madison’s Frozen Five-and-Under would also get a spot at the 5U national championship. The 40-team spiel has been a cornerstone event of the 5-and-Under circuit.
Hannah Record and her team advanced through bracket play to face off against Johnnie Papineau whose team had finished as a runner-up once already this season. Throughout the game, Record had Team Papineau chasing thanks to a very well-called game from Record. If not for a great game from Papineau’s Tyler Goetsch throwing the brick, this game could have gotten out of hand. Goetsch routinely made a number of shots against multiple counters from Record to save the day.
Team Record was in a great spot, up by 1 point with the hammer, going into the 7th end but Team Papineau got guards set up front and crowded the center of the house. The pressure finally got home for Papineau, earning a huge steal of three to go up by 2 points going into the final end. Johnnie Papineau’s rink was able to escape the 8th and take home the victory.
With the victory, Papineau needs to get tickets to Seattle booked, and based on the results elsewhere, it looks like Hannah Record’s rink will be joining their fellow Frozen 5U finalists in Washington!
Evergreen Five-and-Under (Portland, OR)
Winner: Nie (San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club)
Runner-Up: Lopykinski (Nashville Curling Club)
After a few years of bracket play for the 3-sheet Evergreen Curling Club’s annual 5-and-Under, the organizers switched to pool play for this year’s 15-team field. Jason Nie’s team from the Bay Area traveled up the coast to Portland and had themselves a strong weekend.
Nie went undefeated in group play, including a shootout win early on where the skip needed to draw the button for the victory. Thanks to their performance in the tiebreakers, they got a bye straight to the final. Lopykinski also went undefeated in pool play but had to get a win in the semifinal to move on.
In the final, the difference in the game came down to execution with the last rock. Nie converted with hammer each time they had it, scoring multiple points with the last rock advantage in the 1st, 3rd, and 6th ends while also stealing the 4th. Lopykinski conceded after getting forced to one point in the 7th end. With the 8-4 victory, Team Nie returns back to the 2026 national championships after just missing playoffs in 2025 due to a head-to-head tiebreaker.
Raymond Kayser Five-and-Under Mixed (Laurel, MD)
Winner: Dei (Potomac Curling Club)
Runner-Up: Egan (Triangle Curling Club)
The first of three Grand National regional 5U events took with the Kayser 5-and-Under held at Potomac Curling Club. The 35-team mixed event had a national parks theme which I as a former NPS seasonal ranger loved to see. Who knew that national parks and curling could have some outstanding crossover names, but it makes sense when you think that the world’s first national park is invokes a very curling-themed name, Yellowstone!
Coady Egan from Triangle put together a great weekend, but it was the home club’s Josh Dei (team name: Joshua Tee - which is a little too perfect?) who came out on top after coming close in a number of other spiels so far this year. The final was fitting for the weekend’s theme because it was wild.
There were four scores of 3 points and a score of 4 which led to the Dei rink being up by 1 without hammer in the final end. They were able to shrink the scoring arena under a guard just enough to prevent Egan from having a clean shot for the win, and when the Triangle team’s tap back overcurled, the steal of two capped off a 12-9 victory for Team Dei as they earn a return trip to nationals.
As of right now, if we see another repeat winner in one of the final 8 spiels of the year, Egan would likely be the next team in.
Queen City Five-and-Under (Cincinnati, OH)
Winner: Hodges (Great Smoky Mountains, Nashville, Rocket City Curling Clubs)
Runner-Up: Mills (Bowling Green Curling Club)
Last but not least, the newly refurbished Cincinnati Curling Club hosted their Queen City Five-and-Under event. In recent years, the event had hosted 16-20 teams, but as the club recently added a fourth sheet, they were able to move to a 24-team format this year.
8 teams advanced out of pool play and into a playoff, with the Mills rink from Bowling Green meeting Nate Hodges of Knoxville’s Great Smoky Mountains Curling Club. Hodges’ team was made up of curlers throughout the GNCC region, including Mike Lopykinski who was just in a final against Jason Nie in Portland the weekend before!
While the Mills rink had an excellent run, earning the number one seed in the playoffs, their magical run came short against the Hodges rink. Playing 3-handed, Hodges was on the right side of the half inch on just about every shot, constantly forcing Mills to chase with very few good options. Even when it looked like the fortunes might turn in the 5th end, Hodges made a good hit-and-roll against three counters for the Mills team to eventually steal one. With that steal, the Hodges team sealed the game and earned their berth at 5U nationals in Seattle!
Eight 5U qualifier bonspiels still remain, and one region still needs to determine their representatives for club nationals. While this month will remain busy on the club side with another five events between club and 5-and-Under qualifiers, the attention for everyone now turns to the Olympics!
In addition to following all of the action on TV, please be sure to follow me on social media where you’ll find all of my latest coverage. I’ve already published pieces on Rich Ruohonen, Taylor Anderson-Heide, and Cory & Korey, with additional features coming out each of the next two Thursdays! For quick links to all of these features as well as my social media feeds, check out my Linktree!
I’ll also have more in-depth coverage on the mixed doubles event. You can also find all of my Olympics coverage on Rock Channel’s social media channels and thegrandslamofcurling.com.
Until next time, good curling!