Winding Down
France versus Italy, Hodags, and an upcoming bloodbath in Denver
It’s safe to say the 2024-2025 season is winding down. Only a few national championships remain and all qualifiers for the current season have been completed. And yet, it’s not necessarily feeling like it’s winding down for me.
While you can still expect to see previews for the upcoming 5U national championship, believe it or not, there are going to be more qualifiers to talk about. With summer upon us, playdowns for arena national championships have already begun!
In this newsletter, we’ll meet the final 5-and-Under National Championship qualifiers, a club earns its first spot at a national championship, and I even give a brief teaser of the Mixed Fours National Championship!
For the final time this season, let’s take a closer look at 5U qualifier results!
5-and-Under Qualifiers Results
Denver 5U (Golden, CO)
Winner: Team Bouthillette (Bucks County & North End Curling Clubs)
Runner-Up: Team Sturek (Denver Curling Club & Rock Creek Curling)
The Denver 5U has a different theme every year, and this year’s theme was “Around the World”. While I would have loved it if this meant their bonspiel was going with a Daft Punk theme, each team was assigned a country who is a member of World Curling. The final of the 5U brought is to a rivalry the FIFA World Cup would drool over: Team France vs Team England.
Team France is more reasonably known to the rest of us in the curling world as Team Bouthillette of Bucks County and North End Curling clubs while Team England was made up of local curlers from Denver and Rock Creek. The Bouthillette rink has had a strong season to date, and they were finally able to put it all together at one bonspiel to finish their 5U year with a 16-4 record.
They started out strong in the first three games, at one point having scored in 7 consecutive ends between games one and two, but they ran into a tough match in the semifinals against Rodd Kiliany out of Seattle’s Granite Curling Club. After pulling out the victory in the extra end with hammer, Bouthillette and company were able to use their momentum from the semifinal to slingshot them to a commanding 8-0 victory in the final.
St. Paul Host Club Qualifier (St. Paul, MN)
Winner: Team Betzold
Runner-Up: Team Peichel
The final was a crazy pendulum where Team Peichel pulled ahead early, but Betzold demonstrated the importance of hammer efficiency (scoring 2+ with hammer) and force efficiency (forcing your opponent to 1 point when they have hammer).
Peichel started up 4-0 after 2 ends, but Betzold scored 2 with hammer and then forced Peichel to one point. Betzold scored 2 with hammer again and forced Peichel, again. In the 7th, Betzold scored 2 points one more time to tie it up. He was able to make a clutch draw on his last rock in the 8th to get it partially buried in the 4-foot, and that rock would be left standing after Peichel’s final shot.
Team Betzold claims the host club spot, and they’ll see if they can put any home cooking to use when the rest of the field comes to town for nationals.
The Space Race (Huntsville, AL)
Winner: Team Hernandez (Orange County Curling Club & CurlVegas)
Runner-Up: Team McGurk (Broomstones & Orange County Curling Clubs)
For yet another season, The Space Race in Huntsville brought a close to the 5-and-Under qualifier slate. This is the only qualifier held at an arena club, and it looks like they won’t be an arena club for long if an expansion of the Huntsville Ice Sports Center goes as planned.
The Space Race hosted 32 teams again this season in a bracket-style format. Because a few teams won multiple qualifier events, both the winner and runner-up of this qualifier advanced to St. Paul. As this is the last event of the season, the teams knew that as well.
Team Hernandez out of Orange County Curling Club and CurlVegas had a fantastic week, rocketing to the top of the field with their only close game coming in their second game against a Rocket City team whose members had already qualified for 5U nationals. David Hernandez and second Kyra Manayan were a part of the Queena Mewers rink which qualified for St. Paul in Fairbanks. With a win in Alabama, David will take vice Zach Altman and lead Peter Johns along with another teammate to nationals, while Kyra Manayan will stay with her arena national championship teammate, Queena Mewers, at the 5U National Championship.
Team McGurk already had one close call this season when they finished as a runner-up at the Fighting Hornet in Charlotte, and it’s a good thing they stuck with it. They blitzed through the first rounds in Huntsville with convincing wins, not dropping a game until they faced Hernandez in the final. The McGurk rink had a very strong season, posting a 15-6 record at qualifying events. They’re a great example of a team who will be a really tough challenge, despite not having won a qualifying event this season.
Arena Playdown Results
Wisconsin
Women’s Champion: Team Rice (Rhinelander Curling Club)
Women’s Runner-Up: Team Hamann (La Crosse Curling Club)
Wisconsin was the first association to host their playdowns for the 2025 USA Curling National Championship to be held in Las Vegas in October. It was exciting to see that both men and women had teams from two different clubs, La Crosse and Rhinelander, register which necessitated a playdown. Even in a curling hub like Wisconsin, more arena clubs means more access to the game for new curlers, more competition to get to arena nationals, and hopefully, dedicated ice in new communities.
For the women’s event, the playdown consisted of one winner-take-all match at Eau Claire Curling Club between Team Rice of Rhinelander and Wisconsin’s multi-time Arena National Championship representative, Team Hamann. (In the scenario of a two-team playdown next season, I expect we will see a best-of-three playdown.)
Team Rice got out to a quick start, darting ahead to a 5-2 lead after 4 ends. Coming out of the break, Hamann was forced to one with hammer but put some pressure on Rice in the 6th, and Rice was able to make a nice hit-and-stick on the Hamann shot rock to take their one point.
Hamann responded right back with a score of 3 in the 7th to tie it up going into the final end. In the 8th, things were getting messy on Eau Claire’s swingy ice with La Crosse sitting at least first and second shots under cover going into skip stones. Skip Jean Rice made a fantastic come-around draw on the wide side of a corner guard to sit shot rock, and Hamann was unable to remove that rock on her last, securing the first Team Rice’s berth to Las Vegas for nationals
Rhinelander was established in 2023, and this will be their club’s first time being represented at a national championship.
Men’s Champion: Team Chladil (Rhinelander Curling Club)
Men’s Runner-Up: Team Bessert (La Crosse Curling Club)
The good vibes didn’t stop with Team Rice. One week after the women took to the pebbled ice in Eau Claire for women’s playdowns, men’s teams from each Rhinelander and La Crosse met up for a best-of-three playdown.
Wisconsin’s reigning Arena National Championship representatives, Team Bessert took the early lead in the series with a 10-2 win in the first game. After scoring 4 points in the first end, it looked like they were well on the way to a series sweep, but the Hodags seem to have adjusted to the ice at that point. Team Chladil scored a three in the 2nd and stole another in the 3rd to tie it up.
The teams would go on to go back and forth, with Bessert taking two in the 4th and Chladil responding with 3 in the 5th. Again, it looked over when the La Crosse Curlers scored 5 with hammer in the 6th, but again Rhinelander responded, this time with a score of 3 points in the 7th and a steal in the 8th to force an extra end.
In the extra, Rhinelander would force La Crosse to have to draw to the button on their last, and when that draw was heavy, Rhinelander found themselves back in it, tying the series at one game apiece.
Game three would go on to be another tight game with the difference being a big steal of three points in the 5th end. Down by four with two ends remaining, Team Bessert would still make a comeback. They forced Pete Chladil to throw against three scoring rocks for Bessert while up by two points. The Rhinelander skip’s draw would be heavy, but it checked up to give up a steal of just one, enough to secure a win and their spot at the Arena National Championship.
Mixed Fours National Championship Coming Up!
Unfortunately, I don’t have the capacity to cover any more curling than I already am, but I wanted to take a moment to mention the Mixed Fours National Championship coming up in Denver. Even though there is no World Mixed Curling Championship in 2025 (thanks to the Olympics, but it’ll be back in the 26-27 season), we’ve got a fantastic field taking the ice at Denver Curling Club next week.
Dates: April 16-20
Stream Link - one game streamed per draw (Sheet B)
The field for this championship is loaded this year.
Pool A features the reigning national champions, Team Falco of Denver, along with the recently crowned men’s national champion skip Alex Leichter (and his men’s championship teammate, Ryan Hallisey).
Pool B features the team who dethroned Team Falco at regional playdowns, Team Kizlyk (Darrick was the silver medalist at 2024 club nationals). Nina Roth and Kroy Nernberger are coming off a strong showing at the Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials at Rock Creek to lead a team from Wisconsin, and they’ll face off with Evan and Rachel Workin of Fargo-Moorhead Curling Club who both were just on the ice in Milwaukee for club nationals.
And that’s just a small sampling of the fantastic curlers who will be on the ice in Denver next week. Be sure to tune in!
Coming Up
The 5-and-Under National Championship wraps up the 2024-2025 championship season, and it starts in just under 3 weeks.
Before that championship, I’m planning to put together two preview newsletters (12 teams each), so you can get reacquainted with all the teams before the country’s newest competitive curlers take the ice in St. Paul.
Be sure to subscribe to Stones & Stripes to get future newsletters straight into your email inbox, and please consider sharing the newsletter with your curling circle. Word of mouth is the most effective way to reach more people, and I want as many curlers to hear about US grassroots competitive curling as can be reached!
Good curling!