Olympic Trials Day One

The Nutmeg Curling Club was well represented at the US Olympic Trails - Curling (the official title) today in Broomfield, CO (just outside Denver.) Not only did Team Lin have the largest cheering section, we also had the largest banner, and the opening vignette in the Opening Ceremonies video. Oh yeah, we also had a good team there as well!

Charrissa's team, consisting of Nicole Vasser (lead, Broomstones), Karen Walker (2nd, Broomstones), Tanya Jacobsen (vice, Potomac), herself (skip, Nutmeg) and coaches Joseph Smith and Diane Muldowney opened the round robin against the top-ranked and 3-time defending National Champions Debbie McCormick rink from Wisconsin.

Seed 1 vs Seed 10. Not a game expected to be close but after 5 ends it was 5-4 McCormick ahead. The women were playing well and handling the Trials environment like experienced veterans. Arena ice and crowds (400 tickets were sold for the first day) are very different conditions than normal bonspiel play (although we hear we now have 25 second ice with the revamped stones - woohoo!) The third end was particularly impressive as 3 perfect last stones led to 2 points for Team Lin.

Unfortunately, things got hairy in the 6th end and Debbie had an open hit for 5 or 6. Fortunately, David Asano's mother was in the house and Debbie over-curled her hit and jammed our stone for a steal of one! Unfortunately, David's mom must have had an out-of-body experience during the 7th end and we gave up 5 points to go down 10-5. Charrissa made a great draw in the 8th but unfortunately (again - are you seeing a trend here?) it was only for 1. Handshakes followed.

The team is now resting and hopefully so is David's mom. We can't have any more out-of-body experiences from her. Jennifer, Sharon, David and his mom seem to be having a great time and the team loves having them here. Tanya's mother and brother and Nicole's family (mom, grandma, cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews, etc) are also here watching. Charrissa and I have said this many times but we are always amazed and extremely touched by the generosity of the Nutmeg family. Thank you everyone.

Next game is 8am against Aileen Sormunnen. Should be a good one.