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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 25, 2005
McCormick, Fenson on to finals at U.S.
Olympic Trials
(MADISON, Wis.) – The Debbie McCormick and Pete Fenson
rinks took one more step toward becoming Team USA at the
2006 Olympic Winter Games Friday afternoon winning their
matches in the No. 1 vs. No. 2 seed match-ups at the
2006 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Curling at the Madison
Curling Club.
McCormick (Rio, Wis.) and teammates Allison Pottinger
(Eden Prairie, Minn.), Ann Swisshelm Silver (Chicago)
and Tracy Sachtjen (Lodi, Wis.) limited the offense of
the previously undefeated Cassie Johnson rink to secure
a spot in tomorrow’s championship final. Johnson will
play the Patti Lank rink at 7 tonight to determine the
second finalist.
“We’re playing better and better with each consecutive
game,” Swisshelm Silver said. “Focus is not a problem
for us. We’ve been preparing for this for a long, long
time.”
Team McCormick was hitting from all cylinders today
scoring two points in three different ends and limiting
Johnson’s team to mostly one-point ends, which is
typically a recipe for success in curling. The Johnson
rink seemed to lose a little edge from its last match
against Team McCormick when they defeated the 2003 world
champs, 7-5, in the round robin.
“We had trouble generating a deuce in that first game
and Cassie made 100 percent of her shots after the fifth
end,” Swisshelm Silver said.
Lank defeated the Aileen Sormunen rink, 9-4, to secure a
chance to play in the final. Lank, the No. 3 seed,
capitalized on missed shots by Team Sormunen to steal
four ends.
“They played really well,” Lank said of the young team
from Duluth, Minn. “She (Aileen) had good draw weight.”
Lank said she felt that her team had control most of the
game, save for a small scare in the sixth end when she
got a little close to a guard with her last rock and
nearly sent the end Sormunen’s way. Strong sweeping by
front end players Nicole Joraanstad and Natalie
Nicholson kept the shot on target, however, and Team
Lank ended up stealing one in the sixth for a 5-2 lead.
Sormunen came back with a deuce in the seventh to pull
the game closer but gave up four points in the next
three ends to give Lank the victory.
Fenson (Bemidji, Minn.) and teammates Shawn Rojeski
(Virginia, Minn.), Joe Polo (Cass Lake, Minn.) and John
Shuster (Chisholm, Minn.) defeated the Craig Brown rink,
9-3.
“We’re better today, but we weren’t razor sharp,” Pete
Fenson said. “We made a few when we had to make them
though.”
The game was much closer than the score indicates as
Fenson didn’t take control of the game until the ninth
end when the team scored one to pull ahead 5-3. Needing
to score at least two to force an extra end, Brown put
stones in play and needed to hit and stay for two but
crashed on a top guard allowing Fenson to steal four.
Brown will play the Brady Clark rink, 5-4 winners over
Scott Baird’s Bemidji team, at 7 p.m. tonight. This will
be the third game in the last day and half between the
two teams.
“It will be a much more aggressive game,” said Clark, a
business analyst from Redmond, Wash. “I think both teams
can make all their shots and that it will be a great
game.”
The Clark-Baird match was back and forth throughout with
neither team scoring more than one point in an end until
Clark scored the decisive deuce in the 10th
to seal the team’s victory.
“We had a deuce set up in the fifth and Eric made a
great hit and roll and froze to one of our other
stones,” Clark said. “Beyond that there were a lot of
great shots exchanged and not much of a chance to set up
the deuce until the 10th.”
Family ties run strong in the curling community and it
was evident today as brothers Matt and Cody Stevens and
Pete Fenson and Eric Fenson, sisters Cassie and Jamie
Johnson and their father, Tim, and brother and sister
Erika Brown and Craig Brown all were playing on the ice
at the same time.
“Well, I have to admit that I had to look over there a
few more times,” Tim Johnson said. “I normally look
around a little when I’m playing, but there were a few
more glances today.”
The semifinals continue at 7 p.m. tonight, with the
women’s final at 10 a.m. Saturday and the men’s at 2
p.m. 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: Clark 5, Baird 4; McCormick 8,
Johnson 6; Fenson 9, Brown 3; Lank 9, Sormunen 4
Women’s Finalist(s):
Team McCormick: Debbie McCormick (Rio, Wis.),
Allison Pottinger (Eden Prairie, Minn.), Ann Swisshelm
Silver (Chicago), Tracy Sachtjen (Lodi, Wis.)
Women’s semifinalists:
Team Johnson: Cassie Johnson (Bemidji, Minn.),
Jamie Johnson (Bemidji), Jessica Schultz (Anchorage,
Alaska/Duluth, Minn.), 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.)
Men’s Finalist(s):
Team Fenson: Pete Fenson (Bemidji, Minn.), Shawn
Rojeski (Virginia, Minn.), Joe Polo (Cass Lake, Minn.),
John Shuster (Chisholm, Minn.)
Men’s semifinalists:
Team Brown: Craig Brown (Madison, Wis.), Matt
Stevens (Bemidji, Minn.), John Dunlop (Wauwatosa, Wis.),
Bob Liapis (Bemidji), Cody Stevens (Bemidji)
Team Clark: Brady Clark (Redmond, Wash.), Greg
Persinger (Anchorage, Alaska), Colin Hufman (Lynnwood,
Wash.), Ken Trask (Kirkland, Wash.), Doug Kauffman
(Lynnwood, Wash.)
(30)
For more information: Rick Patzke, USA Curling,
rickp@curlingrocks.net, 715-344-1199 |
