Hamilton’s Curling Club is back in action with two tournaments under their belts and a number of promising underclassmen on the roster.
The team has already participated in tournaments hosted by Boston University at Broomstones Curling Club in Wayland, Mass. (Nov. 7-8), and by the Rochester Institute of Technology (Nov. 13-15).
Hamilton sent one team to the Broomstones tournament, consisting of Brian Dickinson ’18 (lead), Alex Hirsu ’17 (second), Nicole Saitta ’16 (vice-skip), and captain Andrew Fletcher ’17 (skip). The team played four games, losing close games to MIT and BU1 and beating BU2 and Bowdoin 2 to win the E event.
“This was a middle of the road finish, but the team played really well,” said Fletcher who was in the skip position for the first time. “I greatly appreciated getting into the strategic role on the team and getting some experience there. It helped highlight a lot of what the team and I need to work on,” he said.
Hamilton sent two teams to the Rochester tournament. The first team (Hamilton 1) was Jackie Zingman ’18 (lead), Nelly Green ’18 (second), Hirsu (vice-skip) and Fletcher (skip), and the second team (Hamilton 2) included John Zhang ’19 (lead), Sarah Hossain ’18 (second), Jess Weston ’17 (vice-skip), and Saitta (skip).
In pool play, Hamilton 1 went 2-1, heftily beating Bowling Green 1 and RIT4, and losing to RPI3. This qualified the team for the event finals the following day, in which it beat RPI2 and lost in a very close match to Bowdoin 1. This ranked the team as the B even runner up, or roughly 5-6 overall (out of 16 teams). Hamilton 2 lost all 3 games in pool play and did not qualify for the event finals. “Hamilton 1 met some other very talented teams very well, and is looking forward to being a major contender at more tournaments in the future,” Fletcher noted.
Fletcher is optimistic about the remainder of the season. “Though we graduated several very talented seniors last year, the curling team looks very strong again this year,” he commented. “Many of our top players are now juniors, and still have much time to improve. We also have several younger curlers who look very good out there, which is encouraging. Either way, we look forward to building our skills as much as possible over this year and future years and continue to compete hard at tournaments.”
Hamilton’s curling team will get right back on the ice after Thanksgiving break with a tournament December 4-6 in Schenectady, NY, hosted by RPI. Other tournaments include Bridgeport, Conn., in late January, and Hamilton will host a tournament in February at the Utica Curling Club where they practice.
“With some decent results at these tournaments, I expect we'll safely qualify for nationals before the end of the season,” Fletcher predicted. The national tournament is in Chaska, Minnesota, and will take place in March over spring break.