Local curling club seeing success on the national level

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – A local sports club sent two teams to a national competition and one brought home some hardware.

Both the men’s and women’s teams for The Curling Club of Rochester qualified for the USA Curling’s Arena National Championships, with the women’s team taking home the bronze medal.

“It was exciting this is the second year that we’ve participated in Arena Nationals from USA curling and we greatly improved from the prior year‚” women’s team lead and second Kaisey Ackerman said. “So, it was our goal just to make it to the finals, but to actually qualify and take home some hardware was a great surprise and we’re really proud of ourselves.”

This milestone for the club is a step in the right direction. Since the COVID-19 pandemic it has been working to grow the support in Rochester, by hosting a variety of different events to bring the community together.

“The last two years we’ve had a lot of learn to curls, we’ve had the bonspiels down at the fair, the youth curling events,” Curling Club of Rochester men’s team member Ryan Cradick said. “So that’s how it started to grow. We’ve gotten more and more times on the ice, so it started to grow much more quickly I think.”

The club is open to any and all that are interested in giving curling a shot.

For the teams and the club as a whole, the support from the community has been great to see as it is giving another opportunity for Rochester to come together.

“When I came here and realized there wasn’t a dedicated facility, there was a great opportunity for Rochester to grow and build that extra community here,” Ackerman said. “So having it grow here is really great, it brings a lot of opportunities to the city and lot of people who want to get introduced to something new.”

“For me it’s really enjoyable, one -- you get to meet new people, amazing people come out, you get a little exercise and it’s really just good for the community,” Cradick said. “It’s a lot of fun I highly encourage everyone to come out and give it a try.”

If you’re interested in joining or giving the club a try, there are several upcoming events in December. including a bonspiel fundraiser on December 9, and a curling and cocktails event on December 20 and December 31.

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