MIT curling team sweeps its way to second regional title
Engineers defeat Harvard and Boston U.
Curling? That’s right. That Olympic sport where people slide rocks on ice and sweep like madmen has arrived at MIT. In fact, MIT students have been curling for the almost three years, since the curling club was approved by the ASA.
For the second consecutive year, curlers from MIT competed in college curling bonspiels (curling tournament) on both a regional and national level. The first event was the Grand National Curling Club (GNCC) Regional Bonspiel held at Broomstones Curling Club in Wayland, MA on Feb. 20, where MIT looked to defend its championship title. The team comprised of skip David S. Tax G, vice Benjamin J. Peters ’11, second Anthony G. Fowler G, and lead Dana B. Sulas ’10 rolled over teams from Harvard and BU before meeting a tough team from Boston Architectural College in the final. In the end, the BAC team was no match for MIT, who went on to a 6-3 victory and claimed their second consecutive GNCC regional college championship. A joint MIT/Harvard team, lead by skip Philip M. Nadeau G and vice Elizabeth K. Rosalia ’13, also participated in the regional event. Their team went on to win the third event with a decisive win over BU, earning them a solid fifth place finish in the 12-team tournament.
The next event on the MIT curling schedule was the annual National College Curling Championship held at the Chicago Curling Club in Glenview, IL from March 12-14. MIT was represented by Tax, Peters, Sulas, and Jeffrey D. Mo G and was seeded as a Division I team. MIT improved on their 2009 result by handily defeating a team from Marquette University, 8-1, in only 6 ends. The following morning, MIT faced the 2008 national champion and 2009 runner-up team from the University of Wisconsin. The MIT team battled hard against their talented opponents, but fell just short, losing a close 7-6 decision. Despite the loss, MIT would rebound in a big way that afternoon, closing out the round robin portion of the tournament with a 9-7 victory over a strong team from Lake Superior College. After that round, MIT, with a 2-1 record, was in a three-way tie for first in their pool with LSC and Wisconsin. Unfortunately, the tie-breaker went against MIT, and Tech did not make the playoff matchups; they watched as the LSC team they had defeated went on to compete for gold. Nevertheless, the MIT team was quite happy with their performance, and look forward to medal in next year’s tournament.
The MIT curling club curls on most Friday afternoons from October to March at Broomstones Curling Club. The club’s officers can be contacted at curling-
owner@mit.edu.