{"id":148,"date":"2018-07-22T19:42:21","date_gmt":"2018-07-22T23:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/curling\/?p=148"},"modified":"2018-07-22T19:42:21","modified_gmt":"2018-07-22T23:42:21","slug":"bowdoin-orient-five-curling-team-will-travel-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/students.bowdoin.edu\/curling\/2018\/07\/22\/bowdoin-orient-five-curling-team-will-travel-nationals\/","title":{"rendered":"Bowdoin Orient: Five from curling team will travel to Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Artur\u00a0Kalandarov<\/a><\/p>\n

Staff Writer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

March 2, 2018<\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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Five members of the Bowdoin curling team will travel to compete at the 2018 College National Curling Championship in Eau Claire, Wisconsin next week. Having ended the season ranked fourth in the nation, the team hopes to do well enough in the starting pool to advance to the championship bracket.<\/p>\n

In order to advance in the tournament, the team needs to finish in one of the top two spots out of the four teams in their round robin pool. The teams are Bowdoin, St. Norbert College, SUNY Polytechnic Institute and University of Oklahoma. The top two of each of the four brackets then advance to the championship bracket.<\/p>\n

\u201cTop six is the goal. We\u2019ve done it before and I don\u2019t see why we can\u2019t do it again. This year, the team that we\u2019re taking is a lot stronger than any team we\u2019ve taken before, so I\u2019m fairly optimistic,\u201d said captain Tom Ezquerro \u201918.<\/p>\n

This is the team\u2019s third consecutive and fourth overall time competing at nationals since it was established seven years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo seniors are going, so I hope they will end their season in a way that they\u2019re proud of and in a greater way, that the rest of us end our season in a way that we\u2019re proud of,\u201d Kylie Best \u201919 said.<\/p>\n

While the team has never won the tournament, captain Cole Hamel \u201918 says the growth of the team\u2014it has gone from five to six players in 2015 to over 20 this season\u2014has contributed to the team\u2019s success. Since the team gets one point for playing in a game and another for winning, their overall ranking goes up depending on how many teams they send to a tournament.<\/p>\n

Matt Swiatek \u201920 believes that a point system that rewards participation has helped make the team more inclusive.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven people who haven\u2019t been on the team for very long we\u2019ll still send to competitions because we know they can get points even if they don\u2019t play at the highest level. They\u2019ll get points simply for competing,\u201d said Swiatek.<\/p>\n

However, Ezquerro notes that curling on the college level has become more competitive recently, making Bowdoin\u2019s success at tournaments more important in getting a bid to nationals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other side of it is [that] curling at the collegiate level has become more popular, so we\u2019re vying for the same amount of points with more teams, so the point qualification is a little bit more challenging this year. There\u2019s anticipation for a lot more teams to join next year as well,\u201d said Ezquerro.<\/p>\n

According to Best, the team\u2019s fourth-place ranking is not just a product of the team\u2019s growth, but also due to their increased competitiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely made a concerted effort to be more competitive this season and I think that shows in our ranking,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is the highest we\u2019ve finished since 2010. So I do think that we have more of a drive to be competitive and I think that has shown itself in how our season worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since most members of the team never curled before joining, practice starts at the most basic level. While the team has a liason at the Belfast Curling Club in Belfast, Maine who provides advice and support, it has no coach. New members learn first at the Watson arena\u2013where the ice is pebbled to make it suitable for curling\u2013 before heading over to the Belfast Curling Club for Sunday practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s basically just getting people familiar with the ice, familiar with the weird movements and weird body positions that go into curling, making sure they get as much practice as possible,\u201d said Hamel.<\/p>\n

Outreach for the team has continued into the second semester, with the curling team holding a \u201cLearn to Curl\u201d event this past weekend. The event encouraged Bowdoin students and members of the community to get acquainted with the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was for people who had never curled before, so they could come and just see what curling is all about. It was very exciting.\u201d said Hamel.<\/p>\n

According to Ezquerro, 52 people, including students, professors and their families, and other staff members showed up to the event.<\/p>\n

The team has also been enjoying other forms of publicity from the Bowdoin Magazine to an Instagram post showing President Clayton Rose curling with the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hopes from that are that we get more people interested,\u201d Best said. \u201cIn terms of recruiting, it would make me so happy if somebody said \u201cI came to Bowdoin because I wanted to curl.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Five from curling team will travel to Nationals<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n