TEAM SHUSTER QUALIFIES FOR FINALS OF 2022 U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS
Photo by Bob Weder
After eight games of round robin play for the men’s field at the 2022 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Curling, Team Shuster remains untouched by the other five teams in the field.
With only two games of round robin play remaining, it is impossible for any team to catch or surpass Team Shuster in the standings, which grants the 2018 defending Olympic Gold Medalists the one seed entering the playoffs.
“It feels super nice to get the one seed. We get the hammer for at least two our of three games now,” said Chris Plys, third on Team Shuster. “But we still want to go out and tune everything up to be ready to go for that final game. We still have a lot of work to go in the round robin.”
In their final two round robin games, Team Shuster faces the Team Dropkin, currently ranked second in the standings, on Wednesday evening and then Team Brudidge on Thursday afternoon.
Team Dropkin sits atop the logjam in the men’s standings that consists of four teams battling for the second and final playoff berth.
"I think our best games have come when we've had each other's backs and have been communicating well amongst each other,” said Mark Fenner, second on Team Dropkin. “Making a lot of shots like that today I think will help lead to a lot of success if we can continue doing that moving forward."
By defeating Team Brundidge 7-2 after nine ends of play on Wednesday morning, Team Dropkin currently sits alone in second place with a 5-3 record, trailed by Teams Persinger and Ruohonen, both at 4-4 and scheduled to play in the final game of the round robin, followed by Team Dunnam with a 3-5 record.
"We had a good game this morning and it's nice to get another win,” said Fenner. “We're looking forward to tonight's game and just doing what we can to get to the finals. That's the name of the game."
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