Curling: Rice Lake Curling Club holds College National Championships

Rice Lake Curling Club was proud to host the 2024 College Nationals Curling Championships on March 8-10. The goal of this championship is to promote and develop on-campus curling clubs across the country and create a pathway for college students to access the sport.

Based on a point system throughout this past year's college curling competitions, the highest 16 college teams were selected to participate. Competing were the University of Minnesota, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Madison, Michigan Tech, Syracuse, Princeton, Penn State, Harvard and Rochester Institute of Technology, Bowdoin, MIT, Yale and Rensslelaer Polytechnic Institute, Arizona State, University of Nebraska and Toledo.

The participants were accompanied onto the ice during the opening ceremonies to the sounds of local bagpiper Michael Larsen. The 2018 Olympic Gold Medalist John Shuster attended the opening ceremonies and spoke to competitors. The primary force behind the event and Rice Lake curler, Tony Nelson, threw out the first stone.

The curling club was packed all weekend with observers and families watching the excellent curling of these young teams. Sportsmanship, skill, courtesy and fun was visible all weekend.

Winning gold was UW-Madison, with Princeton taking silver and Michigan Tech bronze. UW-Stevens Point placed fourth, and the consolation winners were MIT. Penn State received the Spirit of Curling award.

The games were live streamed on YouTube with the college participants commentating the games and thanking local sponsors. The archived stream can be found on the Rice Lake Curling Club's Youtube page.

Sponsors of the event were Forever Exteriors, Edward Jones, CCFBank, Thrivent Financial, Tobaggan Run Dental, Real Estate Solutions, Dairy State Bank, LaPoint Tire & Automotive, State Farm, Kadlec Construction and Rice Lake Weighing Systems.