|
|
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 23, 2005
Johnson, Lank and McCormick earn semifinalist spots at
U.S. Olympic Trials
(MADISON, Wis.) - The fight for the fourth semifinalist
spot got even more muddled as the women's seventh round
was completed Wednesday morning at the 2006 U.S. Olympic
Team Trials at the Madison Curling Club.
The Amy Wright, Caitlin Maroldo and Aileen Sormumen
rinks each lost their matches and Norma O'Leary's
Minnesota rink won to create a four-way tie for
fourth-place. The Cassie Johnson, Patti Lank and Debbie
McCormick rinks locked up their semifinalist spots with
wins.
Trailing by two in the 10th end after allowing Nancy
Richard to steal a total of four points in the eighth
and ninth ends, Johnson made a beautiful runback off the
team's top guard to remove Richard's count rock and
leave her shooter just biting the 12-foot. Richard, a
four-time national champion, attempted double only took
out one leaving Johnson sitting the three she needed for
the win. Team lead Maureen Brunt said the shot was
reminiscent of when the team played in juniors and won
the world championship in 2002.
Norma O'Leary, with four losses looming in the back of
her mind, led her team to a 10-9 victory over Sormunen
to stay with the pack fighting for the final semifinal
spot.
The game was aggressive right from the start with a lot
of rocks in play. O'Leary scored four points in the
second end and stole two in the third for a 6-1 lead
before Sormunen came roaring back with four in the
fourth and steals of one in each of the next two ends.
"The whole game was pretty aggressive on both parts,"
said O'Leary who admitted she likes to start out that
way but that her teammates do not. "You can take a big
end and then turn around and give one up and that's what
happened to us."
O'Leary will face the Wright rink, which lost to the
Patti Lank rink 7-5, in the 4 p.m. draw this afternoon.
"We knew we were starting out the week tough going
against the top teams right away and hoped to be 2-2 at
that point … but we weren't," said O'Leary, a golf
course superintendent/club manager at the Silver Bay
(Minn.) Curling Club. "After last night we saw that we
still controlled our own destiny if we could win out."
O'Leary (Silver Bay, Minn.) and teammates Becky Dobie
(St. Peter, Minn.), Theresa Faltesek (St. Paul, Minn.)
and Patti Luke (Duluth, Minn.) broke open the game in
the seventh end when Sormunen missed a takeout attempt
scoring three for O'Leary. Team O'Leary then stole one
in the eighth end to go up 10-7. Sormunen posted two in
the ninth before conceding to O'Leary.
Madison's Lori Karst rink shut down Caitlin Maroldo's
New York rink, 7-6, making Team Maroldo's hunt for a
playoff berth a lot tougher with the team's final two
games coming against McCormick and Johnson. Maroldo got
into a bit of trouble early on falling behind 5-2 after
giving up a steal of two in the fifth end. They started
to make a comeback in the second half of the match
scoring one in the sixth and two in the eighth before
stealing the ninth end to tie the game up going into the
10th. Maroldo got the rocks in place for a steal but
then came up short on a draw to get count rock.
Team McCormick improved to 6-1 with a 14-5 win over
Katlyn Schmitt's Bemidji, Minn., rink. McCormick and
teammates Allison Pottinger (Eden Prairie, Minn.), Ann
Swisshelm Silver (Chicago) and Tracy Sachtjen (Lodi,
Wis.) opened with one point in the first end and put up
big numbers after that en route to the team's sixth win.
The women return to the ice at 4 today while the men
play at noon and 8 p.m. The 2006 U.S. Olympic 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: Karst 7, Maroldo 6; McCormick 14, Schmitt
5; C. Johnson 8, Richard 7; O'Leary 10, Sormunen 9; Lank
7, Wright 5
Women's standings
*Johnson 7-0
*Lank 7-0
*McCormick 6-1
Maroldo 3-4
O'Leary 3-4
Sormunen 3-4
Wright 3-4
Karst 2-5
Richard 1-6
Schmitt 0-7
Women's semifinalists:
Team Johnson: Cassie Johnson (Bemidji, Minn.), Jamie
Johnson (Bemidji, Minn.), Jessica Schultz (Duluth,
Minn./Anchorage, Alaska), Maureen Brunt (Portage, Wis.)
Team Lank: Patti Lank (Lewiston, N.Y.), Erika Brown
(Oakville, Ontario/Madison, Wis.), Nicole Joraanstad
(Madison, Wis.), Natalie Nicholson (Bemidji, Minn.)
Team McCormick: Debbie McCormick (Rio, Wis.), Allison
Pottinger (Eden Prairie, Minn.), Ann Swisshelm Silver
(Chicago), Tracy Sachtjen (Lodi, Wis.)
(30)
For more information: Rick Patzke, USA Curling,
rickp@curlingrocks.net, 715-344-1199 |
|
|
