Press Coverage

First round of qualification to determine Team USA for 2013 WWUG starts Friday in Blaine
April 10, 2013
The brand-new year-round curling club in Blaine, Minn., is set to host its first USA Curling championship event as the first round of qualification to determine Team USA for the upcoming Winter World University Games (WWUG) gets underway Friday at Fogerty Arena.

The Four Seasons Curling Club (FSCC) will host six men's teams in the opening round of action. The top two teams from this weekend's event will advance to the WWUG Trials on May 2-5, which also will take place in Blaine. The teams advancing from this weekend's action join two teams that earned byes in the first round of qualification. In addition, five women's teams will compete May 2-5 in Blaine. The winning teams from the WWUG Trials will be nominated as Team USA for the 2013 WWUG, which is set to take place Dec. 11-21 in Trentino, Italy.

To read the complete press release, click on the PDF below.

USA Curling
Terry Kolesar
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USA seeks first world mixed doubles title
April 9, 2013
Peter and Maureen Stolt of Plymouth, Minn., will try to become the first U.S. team to win the world mixed doubles title as the 2013 event begins Saturday at the Grant Harvey Centre in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

This newest curling discipline began in 2008 and is being considered as a future Olympic discipline. The Stolts won the U.S. mixed doubles national title back in December with a perfect 7-0 record and will make their first world championship appearance. They will be coached by Lynita Delaney (Trempealeau, Wis.).

The Stolts, both 34 years old, own and operate Shot Rock Curling Supplies. They both also compete regularly in the men’s and women’s competitive circuit and have played in past Mixed National and Mixed Doubles Championships together. Maureen Stolt won a bronze medal at the 2011 Women’s National Championship. She works as a business process consultant with Target Corp., which is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn.

To read more, click on the PDF below.

USA Curling
Terry Kolesar
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2013 World Senior Championships begin Saturday in New Brunswick
April 9, 2013
Teams led by Margie Smith and Gert Messing will aim for the top of the podium as the 2013 World Senior Championships opens up play Saturday at the Grant Harvey Centre in Fredericton, New Brunswick. This is the third time Canada will host the event.

Messing (Hartsdale, N.Y.) leads his team of Dennis Mellerup (Hoboken, N.J.), Donald Nickle (Long Valley, N.J.), Bill Peskoff (Glen Gardner, N.J.), and Paul Pustovar (Hibbing, Minn.), who won the world senior title in 2010, in the field of 20 teams. This is the first appearance for Messing, Mellerup, Nickle and Peskoff at the World Seniors. The men’s field will be split into two groups for the round robin.

Smith (St. Paul, Minn.) and her team of Norma O’Leary (Silver Bay, Minn.), Debbie Dexter (St. Paul, Minn.), Shelly Kosal (Edgerton, Wis.), and Lucy DeVore (Superior, Wis.) will compete in a field of 14 teams, also split into two pools. This is the second Senior Worlds appearance for Smith, Dexter and Kosal, who finished fourth in 2011 in St. Paul, Minn. O’Leary and DeVore will make their rookie appearances.

To read the complete press release, click on the PDF below.

USA Curling
Terry Kolesar
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2014 Olympic Winter Games Qualification Points Standings
April 7, 2013
World Curling Federation
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Americans finish 9th at the Men's World Championship; USA does not qualify direct to 2014 Olympic Games
April 6, 2013
Team USA's final ranking at the 2013 Ford World Men's Curling Championship, presented by Booster Juice, is ninth, which is not enough points for the American men to qualify directly to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

Brady Clark (Lynnwood, Wash.) and teammates Sean Beighton (Seattle), Philip Tilker (Seattle), Darren Lehto (Seattle), and Greg Persinger (Anchorage, Alaska) finished with a 5-6 record at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. The finish equated to four Olympic qualification points. That total coupled with last year's five points earned in Basel at the 2012 Men's World Championship, put the U.S. one spot short of qualifying directly to Sochi.

The top seven countries in qualification points from the 2012 and 2013 world championships that have earned direct berths to Sochi include Scotland (whose points are awarded to Great Britain for Olympic purposes), Sweden, Denmark, Canada, China, Norway, Switzerland plus Russia (as host). Final point totals will be announced on Sunday after the conclusion of the 2013 Men's World Championship.

To read the complete press release, click on the PDF below.

USA Curling
Terry Kolesar
application/pdf iconoly.pdf

USA ends round robin on winning note
April 5, 2013
Team USA didn't have the week the team envisioned when they stepped on the ice at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre for the first time last week. But the team fought hard all week and finished the 2013 Ford World Men's Curling Championship, presented by Booster Juice, on a winning note as Brady Clark and Co. defeated Norway, 9-7.

"It was a huge win. We needed to win that game and finish with a win and get a little bit of confidence," Clark said. "This week didn't quite go our way. We definitely had a learning experience and look forward to a lot of things we can work on moving forward."

Clark (Lynnwood, Wash.) and teammates Sean Beighton (Seattle), Philip Tilker (Seattle), Darren Lehto (Seattle), and Greg Persinger (Anchorage, Alaska) will have to wait for the results of tonight's round robin to know the team's final ranking, and more importantly, the number of points the USA will earn toward qualifying for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. The U.S. can finish as high as sixth and as low as ninth based on tonight's results. The final battle for qualification points comes down to USA, Switzerland (5-5) and the Czech Republic (6-4).

USA Curling
Terry Kolesar
application/pdf iconm11.pdf

USA eliminated from playoff tiebreaker contention
April 4, 2013
Team USA let a win slip away this morning as the round robin winds down at the 2013 Ford World Men's Curling Championship, presented by Booster Juice.

Brady Clark and the American men had a couple of chances late in the game to put Russia's Andrey Drozdov rink away but couldn't capitalize and eventually lost on the last rock, 7-5, at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.

Clark (Lynnwood, Wash.) and teammates Sean Beighton (Seattle), Greg Persinger (Anchorage, Alaska), Philip Tilker (Seattle) and Darren Lehto (Seattle) are now 4-6 with one game remaining on the schedule as the chance for a tiebreaker game to get into the playoffs disappeared with the loss.

To read the complete press release, click on the PDF below.

USA Curling
Terry Kolesar
application/pdf iconm10.pdf

USA wins third straight in Victoria
April 3, 2013
The streak is on. Brady Clark and the American men pushed their win streak to three with a win this morning over Finland at the 2013 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship, presented by Booster Juice.

Clark (Lynnwood, Wash.) and teammates Sean Beighton (Seattle), Philip Tilker (Seattle) and Darren Lehto (Seattle) scored two points in the final end to defeat Finland’s Aku Kauste rink at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

“It was really big,” Lehto said about the team’s fourth win. “We dug ourselves a little bit of a hole. We had a couple games we had a chance to win and didn’t. Our back was up against the wall a little bit. Three wins gets us back; actually, medals aren’t even out of the question if we play well. It gets us into a good spot to secure our Olympic spot so we just have to keep playing well. It’s nice to get a little momentum going.”

The win improves Team USA to 4-4 in the standings with three games left in the round robin. Finland drops to 1-7.

The U.S. men could have potentially had a sizable lead after two ends but both teams struggled a little bit to shake the cobwebs out from the early start to the day.

“We let probably a lot of points go away in the first two ends and then they [Finland] started playing a lot better. They played solid the rest of the game and it was a battle,” said Lehto, 44, who works as a regional sales manager with RedBuilt, a supplier of structural products for the commercial and industrial construction industry.

To read the complete press release, click on the PDF below.

USA Curling
Terry Kolesar
application/pdf iconm8.pdf