FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 16, 2005

Mankato-area curlers headed to Olympic Trials for Curling

(STEVENS POINT, Wis.) – Three Mankato-area curlers will compete at the 2006 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Curling slated to begin Saturday in McFarland, Wis.

Becky Dobie (St. Peter, Minn.), Pete Annis (Owatonna, Minn.) and Nick Myers (Mapleton, Minn.) will each try to mark their footsteps in curling history as the Olympic Trials begin next week at the Madison Curling Club.

Dobie, a student at Bethany Lutheran College in St. Peter on a softball scholarship, is a three-time junior national champion and competed at the 2002 U.S. Olympic Trials, finishing fourth. Dobie is a member of the Norma O’Leary rink, which is ranked No. 7 at the Trials. The O’Leary rink only had to play two games at the Challenge Round before qualifying for the Olympic Trials.

Annis, 42, plays lead on the Rich Ruohonen rink based out of the Twin Cities, which is ranked No. 6. He began curling at age 8 and competed in his first national men’s championship last year in Grand Forks, N.D. Annis works for Pro Marketing Inc. Teammate Nick Myers, 27, joined the Ruohonen rink this season and helped the team to a 5-1 record at the Challenge Round last month to qualify for the Olympic Trials.

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