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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 24, 2005
Johnson rink secures No. 1 playoff seed
at U.S. Olympic Trials
(MADISON, Wis.) – The Cassie Johnson rink secured the
No. 1 seed for the playoffs after finishing the round
robin with a perfect 9-0 record Thursday morning at the
2006 U.S. Olympic Team Trials at the Madison Curling
Club.
Johnson (Bemidji, Minn.) and teammates Jamie Johnson
(Bemidji), Jessica Schultz (Duluth, Minn./Anchorage,
Alaska) and Maureen Brunt (Portage, Wis.) defeated the
Caitlin Maroldo rink, 10-0, in six ends to secure the
top spot.
They will face the Debbie McCormick rink in the
semifinal at 2 p.m. Friday. McCormick and teammates
Allison Pottinger (Eden Prairie, Minn.), Ann Swisshelm
Silver (Chicago) and Tracy Sachtjen (Lodi, Wis.)
defeated Team Patti Lank, 7-6, in an extra end. The
game, which had a playoff caliber element to it, went to
an extra end after Lank missed a takeout with her last
rock allowing McCormick to steal one.
“This game had more touch shots and was a good warm-up,”
Pottinger said. “It’s a huge advantage for us mentally
to get the win and get a monkey off our backs.”
In the extra end, McCormick put up a guard with her
first rock which came up a little short of where the
team would have preferred leaving her shot rock exposed
on the four foot. Lank then took out the shot rock with
her first shot. With her last rock, McCormick was
playing a corner freeze but it slid through to the back
of the four foot and still ended up count rock. Lank
tried to follow her in but wrecked on a top guard giving
McCormick a steal of one and the win.
As the No. 3 seed, Team Lank now has to play an extra
game to get to the final with the Page Playoff System
being used. Under this system, the #1 and #2 seeds play
in the first semifinal, with the winner advancing to the
final and the loser playing the winner of a semifinal
between the #3 and #4 seeds to determine the second
finalist.
“We met our first goal, which was to qualify for the
playoffs,” said Nicole Joraanstad, second for the Lank
team. “Since we’re in the third spot, with the Page
System obviously we have to win one more game now. We’re
just going to take it one game at a time, and win three
of them.”
Team Lank will play the winner of a tiebreaker game
between the Amy Wright and Aileen Sormunen rinks set for
4 p.m. today. The Wright and Sormunen rinks both needed
wins today to fight for the final semifinal spot and
came through.
Team Sormunen, who beat Team Wright earlier in the round
robin, defeated the Katlyn Schmitt rink, 9-5, after a
huge seventh end when Team Sormunen scored five points
to break open the game.
Team Wright controlled its game against the Lori Karst
rink right from the start in defeating the team 9-4.
Wright (Duluth, Minn.) and teammates Cristin Clark
(Redmond, Wash.), Stephanie Roland (Petersburg, N.D.)
and Lisa Rugen (Seattle) scored one in the second end
and stole the next three ends to build a 7-1 lead going
into the sixth end. Karst scored two in the seventh but
wasn’t able to generate the points she needed after that
to make a comeback for the win.
“We’ve been playing with our backs against the wall all
week since Aileen beat us in the round robin,” Wright
said. “We’ve had three must-win games and have been able
to win them. This has probably been our best game all
week and hopefully we can keep this momentum going.”
Norma O’Leary broke open a tight game by stealing the
last three ends for a 6-1 win in seven ends against
Nancy Richard’s Seattle rink.
The women return to the ice at 8 a.m. tomorrow for the
final draw of the round robin. The semifinals will take
place at 2 p.m. Friday. 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: O’Leary 6, Richard 1; C. Johnson 10,
Maroldo 0; McCormick 7, Lank 6 (extra end); Wright 9,
Karst 4; Sormunen 9, Schmitt 5
Women’s standings
*Johnson 9-0
*McCormick 8-1
*Lank 7-2
Sormunen 5-4
Wright 5-4
O’Leary 4-5
Maroldo 3-6
Karst 2-7
Richard 1-8
Schmitt 1-8
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
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