Hamilton’s curling team finished the 2013-2014 season ranked 16th in U.S. College Curling Merit Point Standings, thus qualifying for Nationals which will be held March 14-16 in Blaine, Minn. Hamilton Team 1 will be competing against 15 other teams from all over the country. Team 1 members representing Hamilton are captain Meghan Doherty ’14, Tara Huggins ’14, Josh Devinney ’15 and Jake Davidson ’15.
“We’re so excited to represent Hamilton at curling nationals,” said Doherty. “Given that this is an Olympic year, there's been more excitement than usual about curling - which is great for us.” The team held a campus viewing party to watch Olympic curling (USA women defeating Japan).
Hamilton ended its season with a home bonspiel in Utica on Feb. 14-15. Hamilton 1 was able to defeat RPI but lost to Colgate and BU. Hamilton 2 (Trevor Howe ’14, Bethany Campbell ’14, Jessica Weston ’17 and Mali Barker ’17) also gave a strong performance, defeating RPI as well.
Nicole Saitta ’16 and Linnea Sahlberg ’17 played on a combination Hamilton/Binghamton team, and two team members (Jean Chen ’17 and Andrew Fletcher ’17) played on Bowling Green teams as subs. “We have a lot of new curlers this year and this was their first bonspiel,” Doherty explained.” I was very happy that so many of them were able to play, even if they weren’t directly representing Hamilton.”
Doherty predicted, “I think the team will do well at nationals. I was really proud of our performance at the Utica bonspiel,” she said, “and we’re looking forward to doing even better in Minnesota. Curling is more popular in the Midwest, whereas it’s only recently gained relevance here.”
