MIT won 3rd place in the College Curling National Championships this weekend! It was a great tournament hosted in the beautiful Chaska Curling Center in Minnesota. Congratulations to skip Greg Dooley playing in his final Nationals, vice Alex Hull, second Cody Karcher, and lead Nate Bailey.
The tournament started with group play on Friday and Saturday which determined placement in the final brackets on Sunday. In MIT's group were Bowdoin, Colgate, and University of Wisconsin Stevens Point. The team started with a close win over Bowdoin on Friday night that came down to the final stone. On Saturday, the team lost their first game against defending champions Stevens Point, before besting Colgate in the evening. MIT placed second in the group with a 2-1 record, and their excellent tiebreakers placed them as the first seed in the second event bracket playing for the bronze medal.
First was an early game at 7:30 against RPI, which felt even earlier as the team lost an extra hour of sleep due to Daylight Savings Time. MIT built an early lead and went into halftime up 9-1. MIT held on in the second half to win 11-5. In the second event finals, MIT went up against Nebraska, and the script was much the same as in the RPI game. MIT built up a 10-1 lead after five ends and Nebraska was unable to come back.
With that, MIT took home 3rd place! The team played excellently, especially on Sunday, and the tournament was extremely well-run, fun, and competitive. We are all looking forward to a great season next year.