“That got the guys motivated”
With the round robin now past the halfway point at the 2024 U.S. Men’s National Curling Championships, Team John Shuster leads the eight-team field as the only undefeated squad remaining in East Rutherford, N.J.
Shuster is a perfect 4-0 after another two-win day on Wednesday at The Rink located inside the American Dream retail and entertainment center.
However, after easily dispatching Rich Ruohonen’s rink 10-4 in their first game of the day, Team Shuster was put to the test on Thursday night. Trailing Danny Casper 4-1 after four ends, the 2018 Olympic gold medalists stormed back to score an 8-5 win and remain perfect with three round robin games to go.
After being forced to a single point in the fifth to trail 4-2 at the break, Shuster and teammates Colin Hufman, Matt Hamilton and Chris Plys stole a single in the sixth followed by two in the seventh and then three more in the eighth for an 8-4 advantage.
Shoostie looks happy enough • Bob Weder-USA Curling
Playing a thin takeout needing to hold the shooter for two in the ninth, Casper removed Shuster’s yellow stone sitting shot rock. But his shooter rolled out, giving Casper a single instead of the two needed to head for home down two instead of three without hammer.
“It was in the sixth end where (Casper) had a bump for three or four that if he would have made it next to impossible for us to win,” Shuster said of the key end which fueled the comeback.
“Before my last shot, we actually called a timeout and decided to put the rock where we did (biting the button for shot buried under a high center guard).
“We felt if he made that shot then we lose but if he missed, we steal and are right back in it. That got the guys motivated and we went on to steal two and three by really good execution.”
Shuster has played with a five-man team all season—longtime front-ender John Landsteiner completes the squad—and is rotating players in and out again this week. And it’s worked out flawlessly, as they’ll play just one game on Thursday, facing off against Team Ethan Sampson at 2:00 p.m. (ET).
Sampson is tied with Team Korey Dropkin for second overall at 3-1.
“Hey, I know her!” • Korey Dropkin
“I think we have managed what the ice has given us in this interesting setting, which has really been pretty good,” Shuster said. “It’s had its challenges, but we’ve worked as a fivesome to give ourselves opportunities to make to make shots.”
Sampson split a pair of games yesterday, losing 8-2 to Dropkin in his first of the day followed by an 8-2 bounce back win over Nicholas Connolly on Wednesday night.
Dropkin, the 2021 U.S. champion, split his first two games on Tuesday but picked up victories over Sampson and Wesley Wendling (8-4) yesterday. They’ll take on Team Casper today at 2:00 p.m. followed by a matchup against Ruohonen and Shuster to close out the round robin on Friday.
“It’s another week of curling,” Dropkin said of their run so far.
“We’re starting to clean things up and play good curling out there, but we know we need to keep getting better every game in order to win this thing.”
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The women’s side has a trio of teams tied for first with three round robin games remaining. Sarah Anderson, Tabitha Peterson and Delaney Strouse are all 3-1 overall with a pair of games on the docket Thursday followed by one last match on Friday.
On Wednesday, defending champion Peterson defeated Miranda Scheel (8-5) in the morning and then grabbed a key 9-6 win over Strouse in the afternoon.
Team Anderson won both of their games yesterday to remain atop the standings.
The top two teams on both sides will advance to the 1 vs 2 page playoff game, while the next two will play in the 3 vs 4 matchup.
Every game from the 2024 U.S. Nationals are being streamed live on CurlingZone, including the CurlingZone YouTube page.