Every four years as the Winter Olympics roll around, interest in the sport of curling peaks in the United States. At Hamilton however, the excitement returns each and every year with the onset of a new winter season. This curling fever has been especially pronounced this year since Hamilton’s team qualified for the 2019 USA Curling College Championships. According to the current standings of USA College Curling, Hamilton is ranked 12th in the nation, just a few points behind Harvard and Yale.
Whether or not the team would qualify for the national tournament during this season was up for debate from the start. Of the 35 players on the roster, only three are upperclassmen. Among those upperclassmen, none are seniors. Thus, the question was: does the team have the experience that it takes to make it all the way to nationals?
“There was a big chance that we wouldn’t make it [to nationals] this year since a lot of seniors graduated last year, and none will be graduating this year,” said James Carhart ’21, the president and captain of the team. “We also started with three juniors, but two went abroad. Therefore, our team is almost entirely made up of [first years] and sophomores.”
Despite not having as much experience as others in terms of competing at the collegiate level, many underclassmen have stepped up, becoming some of the teams shining stars this season. “Some of our rookies this year are Molly Healey ’22, Emily Moy ’22, Gus Huiskamp ’21, Jennifer Fleming ’22, and Taron Kui ’22,” said Carhart. “Our nationals team will be Amy Glanzer ’21, myself [Carhart], Ryan Wall ’20, Healey, and Moy — who will act as an alternate. Glanzer is the treasurer and social coordinator of the team. Wall is our only junior and our token old person.”
After play started and the team enjoyed a run of success, the question turned from whether or not they would make it to nationals to where the squad would be seeded heading into the collegiate championship. Securing two victories over the University of Pennsylvania and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the recent Utica Curling Club College Bonspiel allowed the Continentals to finish in fourth place out of a field of 24 teams, boosting their standings on the national level.
“At the Utica Curling Club College Bonspiel (Bonspiel means tournament in curling) we also received a special prize,” Carhart said. “Our team that placed fourth drew a stone right to the center of the button — the bullseye of the house for tiebreakers — which was a first for the Bonspiel.”
As the team prepares for the post-season tournament in March where they will compete against teams from the Northeast and Midwest. They say they have started looking back on their competition this season as a source of valuable learning.
“Our toughest competition was Syracuse; we played them four times and lost four times by giving up a lead late in the game,” said Carhart.
Hamilton is currently ranked higher than Syracuse nationally, so they hope that if they face them again in the national tournament, they will secure the victory when it matters most.
The Continentals will head to the Broomstones Club in Wayland, M.A. from Friday, March 8 until Sunday, March 10 to compete in the USA Curling College Championships. Until then, the team will continue to prepare for nationals, keeping the curling fever high all the way until next season.
