Photo courtesy of the Michigan Tech Curling Club The Michigan Tech Curling Club team finished third at nationals in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, last weekend. The team consists of skip Gracie Kohn, third Rese Elza, second Bryce Doering, lead Tyler Magnuson, and alternate Noah Patterson, along with coach Gordon Maclean.

RICE LAKE, Wis. — After steamrolling their way through pool play, the Michigan Tech Curling Club made its way to the quarterfinals, where they again racked up a win before battling Princeton in the semifinals, a team they had not faced before. Despite a valiant effort, Michigan Tech lost that match, setting up a third place matchup with Wisconsin-Stevens Point, which they won, taking home third place at the USA Curling College Nationals last weekend.

For a club that was started just this season, a third-place finish is quite an achievement.

“Actually, the Michigan Tech club was formed earlier this year by the students,” said coach Gordon Maclean. “We went down to Rice Lake and blasted through the pool play. None of the wins were by less than ten points. So, it was a pretty thorough drubbing of the competition, and that included Yale, Nebraska and Rensselaer Polytechnic.”

Michigan Tech opened play in Rice Lake with a 14-0 win over Yale in five ends. They defeated Nebraska in a similar manner once they started scoring, 12-3 after six ends. When facing RPI, they cruised to a 13-2 win in six ends.

In the quarterfinals, they knocked off Toledo 12-1, setting up the matchup with Princeton. Michigan Tech led by one, 6-5, in the eighth end, but Princeton managed to score two in that end to win.

“They have to give Princeton credit,” Maclean said. “They played two very good stones to finish the game, and were ahead by one and were sitting two. So we were on the verge of scoring. I told the team, called the timeout, and I came out and talked with them. I said, ‘Hey, look, we can afford to lose one point. We take a tie and go into an extra end, and we’ll have the last stone advantage. We just can’t afford to give up two.’

“Unfortunately, we gave up two.”

Maclean said the mood on the team dropped after that semifinal loss.

“The team was pretty devastated by that, because I think they had a lot invested on going into the gold medal game,” he said. “We ended up going into the bronze medal game and thoroughly handled Wisconsin-Stevens Point.”

Michigan Tech defeated Stevens Point 8-2 in the third-place match.

Given that the curling club was formed just this season, and that it practiced on the same natural ice that the Copper Country Curling Club does, and the winter has gone the way it has this year, Michigan Tech did not have many chances to practice to hone their skills.

“It’s even more impressive, given the fact that with our curling club here having natural ice, we only had a few weeks that they were able to practice together,” said Maclean. “I mean, they literally had maybe five practices all season together. So, that says a lot about the character of the players involved. I give them full credit to completing what I thought was a very successful run out there on the ice in Rice Lake.”

Maclean, who formed the Copper Country Curling Club 30 years ago, was asked during the season to step in and help out.

“I didn’t get involved until later in the season when they decided that they wanted a coach,” he said. “I have coached at the U.S. junior level before. So I said, ‘Sure, I’d be happy to do that. I’d love to do that.'”

The Michigan Tech Curling Club team that competed at nationals consisted of skip Gracie Kohn, third Rese Elza, second Bryce Doering, lead Tyler Magnuson, and alternate Noah Patterson.

With about an hour between the semifinal match and the third-place one, the team had to rebound, and it did so with flying colors.

“That, honestly, is not something you can coach,” Maclean said. “That’s something that they define within themselves, and they did it. They could have gotten really down about it, but they didn’t.

“They realized, ‘OK, we have to go out. We have to get the hardware, and we have to show that, even though we’re not going for the top spot, we’re going to make sure that they remember us for next year.’

For her efforts on the weekend, Kohn was voted to be an All-American First Team West. In fact, she was the top vote receiver overall.

Maclean remains excited to see what the Michigan Tech club can accomplish moving forward.

“That’s beauty of this team, too,” he said. “Three of them are first-year students at Tech. One of them is a second-year student. So, this is going to be a potential dynasty here. Especially if I can work with them starting in the fall, and work through some of the beginners’ curling issues in some cases, and work with the older, more experienced students in terms of strategy and so forth, in other cases.”

Maclean and the Copper Country Curling Club are hosting a reception on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. at the Curling Club in Calumet. They will be celebrating their 30th anniversary with two special presentations, one for the Michigan Tech Curling Club for their accomplishments in their first season, and one about the first 20 years of the curling club.