FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 16, 2005

 

Duluth contingent headed to Olympic Trials for Curling

 

(STEVENS POINT, Wis.) – Eight curlers from the Duluth area will compete at the 2006 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Curling with hopes of becoming the first members of the 2006 U.S. Olympic Team.

 

Curlers Aileen Sormunen, Courtney George, Amanda Jensen, Amanda McLean, Jessica Schultz, Patti Luke and Amy Wright of Duluth as well as Norma O’Leary from nearby Silver Bay, Minn., will compete at the 2006 Olympic Team Trials Feb. 19-26 at the Madison Curling Club in McFarland, Wis.

 

Duluth teammates Sormunen, George, Jensen and McLean recently returned from the 2005 Junior Nationals and have plenty of ice-time this year in preparation for the week-long Trials. The youngest team in the field, the Sormunen rink earned the last berth to the Trials after finishing with a 3-2 record at the Challenge Round last month in Eveleth, Minn. The team enters the Trials as the No. 6 ranked team, as determined by peer-seeding.

 

Amy Wright, 41, has competed at the last two Olympic Trials, finishing second at the 1998 event. A three-time national champion, Wright and her teammates upset the defending national champion Patti Lank rink to finish 4-0 at the Women’s Qualifying Round in Rice Lake, Wis., in January and earn a spot to the Olympic Trials. The team goes into the Trials as the No. 4 ranked team.

 

Jessica Schultz, a native of Anchorage, Alaska, who attends the University of Minnesota-Duluth, plays second on the Cassie Johnson rink of Bemidji, Minn. The Johnson team recently returned from Karuizawa, Japan, where they earned silver medals at an international bonspiel. The Johnson rink is ranked No. 3 and qualified for the Olympic Trials after finishing 4-0 at the Women’s Qualifying Round in Medford, Wis., last month.

 

Schultz, 20, joined the Johnson rink this season after playing with Wright last season at the women’s level and skipping her own team at the junior level for Alaska. She was named All-Star skip at last year’s Junior Nationals.

 

O’Leary, 43, and Luke, 38, will team up in their first appearance at the Olympic Trials. O’Leary, golf course superintendent and club manager of the Silver Bay Country Club, and Luke, an accountant with the Department of Justice, also will compete at the 2005 U.S. National Championships, which begin in Chicago the day after the Olympic Trials conclude. The O’Leary rink is the No. 7 ranked team.

 

The 2006 U.S. Olympic Team Trials also will serve as the World Trials to choose the USA’s entrants at the 2005 Ford World Curling Championships. Ten men’s and 10 women’s team will take part in a round robin. The top four teams will advance to the semifinals on Feb. 25. The Page Playoff System will be used to determine the finalists. The No. 1 ranked team will play the No. 2 ranked team. The winner advances to the final while the loser advances to play the winner of the No. 3 vs. No. 4 ranked teams to determine the second finalist. The men’s and women’s finals will take place Feb. 26.

 

Highlights from the 2006 U.S. Olympic Trials will be aired on the College Sports Television Network at a date to be announced soon.

 

Curling became a full-medal sport at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. The 2006 Olympic Games will take place Feb. 10-26, 2006. The 2010 Olympics will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia.

 

USA Curling is sponsored by AIT Worldwide Logistics and AmerAust Technologies as well as by General Motors, Chevron-Texaco and Bank of America through a joint marketing program with the U.S. Olympic Committee.

 

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For more information: Rick Patzke, USA Curling, rickp@curlingrocks.net, 715-344-1199