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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Feb. 22, 2005
Three still tied at the top at men’s
Trials
(MADISON, Wis.) – The three men’s leaders all won in
the early draw at the 2006 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for
Curling this morning, running their records to 4-1.
Meanwhile, two other contests between four teams
fighting to stay in the playoff hunt were filled with
offensive fireworks right through extra ends.
Among the leaders, Craig Brown’s team, after taking
its first loss last night, came back strong to defeat
the Jason Larway rink in eight ends, 7-2. Brady Clark’s
team also rebounded from its first loss yesterday—and
Clark from the flu—to steal an 8-5 win from a fellow
West Coast team skipped by Wes Johnson. Pete Fenson’s
rink stole three points in the ninth to overcome the
Rich Ruohonen team, 10-4.
The Craig Disher and Greg Eigner teams mixed it up
right from the start and didn’t quit for 11 ends, as the
game was tied 9-9 after the regulation 10. Disher had
the lead five times in this game, Eigner twice, and the
score was knotted three other times, including 4-4 at
the halfway point.
Disher’s team made a break with three points in the
ninth end for a 9-7 lead. Disher made a great shot with
the hammer in the ninth, chipping one of his team’s own
rocks into Eigner’s last shot and sending it out of
second count. The back-line weight hit was controlled
enough to keep the shooter around for the trey.
"That was a great shot," said vice skip Kevin Kakela.
"But then he kind of made up for it in the 10th
end," he joked.
Maybe it wasn’t such a joke, as Disher himself
remarked that his two 10th end shots were
less than stellar. Eigner had an open draw to the
eight-foot for two to force the extra end. But in the 11th
Disher came up big again, with super sweeping from front
end players Zach Jacobson and Carey Kakela, to chip
Eigner’s shot rock out and score one for the win.
"We’re not playing real sharp yet," said Disher, who
farms several thousand acres of grain around Langdon,
N.D. "There were a lot of half-shots. But we’ll take a
‘w’ anyway we can get it."
Ben Tucker, another North Dakota farmer, had his own
shootout going against the Scott Baird rink. Tucker
seemed to have the game in the bag after stealing one in
the eighth end to take an 8-6 lead and holding Baird’s
team to a single point in the ninth. But a missed peel
in the 10th allowed the Baird team to get a
rock on top of the button hidden behind a lone center
guard.
Tucker tried to tick it out with his first shot, but
missed. Rick Fenson, throwing the last rocks for Baird’s
team, drew in for the winning point, but his rock
drifted behind the tee line, leaving Tucker an exit
strategy. He was able to hit and stick to hold Baird to
a steal of one and send the game into the 11th.
Baird and his teammates were able to keep the
momentum swinging in their favor in the extra end,
though, and didn’t leave Tucker an easy shot with the
hammer. He tried playing a soft hit through a port the
size of a specimen cup, and nearly made it. But his rock
rubbed the last of two staggered guards and veered just
enough off course to flash by the target rock.
"If he gets through that hole, he’s got it," said
Baird. "I thought he had it, actually. They just lost it
a little right at the end."
"We got a little fortunate," Baird said. "It’s not
often that you can steal the ninth and 10th
ends. That was a tough game. They played really well.
There was a lot of great shot-making by both sides. It
was a fun game to play."
The victory put Baird’s team alone at 3-2 in the
standings, while Tucker dropped into a four-way tie at
2-3. "We needed that one," said Baird. "We’re not
playing our all-time best, but we’re doing alright.
Right now we’re just hoping to stay in the thick of it."
Asked what he thinks will be the key for any team
trying to win the Trials, Baird said, "Getting a feel
for the ice. I think the teams that pick up on the
weight first are the ones that are going to succeed. We
had some 26-second ice out there at times. I don’t play
a lot on ice like this. But it’s fun stuff. It feels
good, it slides good, and the sweepers like it."
The men are back in action at 7 o’clock tonight. The
round robin continues through Thursday with the
semifinals Friday afternoon followed by the men’s and
women’s finals on Saturday. Live action of the 2006 U.S.
Olympic Team Trials for Curling can be followed on the
USA Curling web site at www.usacurl.org, including via
an audiocast and end-by-end scoring.
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.
Game scores: Brown 7, Larway 2; Disher 10, Eigner
9 (11 ends); Fenson 10, Ruohonen 4; Baird 9, Tucker 8
(11 ends); Clark 8, Johnson 5.
Men’s standings
Brown 4-1
Clark 4-1
Fenson 4-1
Baird 3-2
Disher 2-3
Larway 2-3
Ruohonen 2-3
Tucker 2-3
Eigner 1-4
Johnson 1-4 |
