By Jonathan Brazeau
Team Shuster and Team Peterson will represent the United States on home ice at the 2025 Pan Continental Curling Championships.
Shuster and Peterson emerged victorious during USA Curling's playdowns this weekend in Chaska, Minn.
Both the men's and women's divisions featured three teams competing in a double round-robin format.
The Duluth, Minn., squad of skip John Shuster, third Chris Plys, second Colin Hufman and lead Matt Hamilton ran the table, twice, finishing with an unblemished 4-0 record.
Shuster defeated Team Dropkin 8-4 and Team Casper 6-4 during Friday's opening slate of games. The 2018 Olympic gold medallist scored a tight 3-2 win over Dropkin on Saturday morning to clinch the Pan Continental spot and wrapped things up with an 8-4 decision over Casper in the evening.
From a clean sweep on the men's side to a messy house on the women's side. Team Peterson, Team Strouse and Team Cousins all finished with identical 2-2 records, leading to a double tiebreaker round Sunday to determine the winner.
Strouse eliminated Cousins 6-3 to advance to the final against Peterson, who received a bye based on draw-to-the-button shootout scores.
Peterson picked up a 6-3 win over Strouse to secure the berth.
It was quite the turnaround for the Chaska-based club of skip Tabitha Peterson, third Cory Thiesse, second Tara Peterson and lead Taylor Anderson-Heide. Peterson got out to a 0-2 start in the tournament with a 7-4 loss to Strouse and a 6-4 loss to Cousins on Friday, then bounced back with a 9-1 rout over Strouse and a 7-2 win over Cousins on Saturday.
The Pan Continental Curling Championships run Oct. 19-26 in Virginia, Minn., with teams looking to qualify for the 2026 world championships. The U.S. is already guaranteed a spot as the host of the World Men's Curling Championship in Ogden, Utah, but Shuster will still need to finish high enough to avoid relegation to next season's B-event. Peterson will need to qualify the U.S. for the World Women's Curling Championship, which is set to take place in Calgary.
Team Shuster earned men's bronze at the Pan Continental Curling Championships last season, defeating Canada's Team Gushue 10-8 for the final spot on the podium. Team Peterson, with Thiesse skipping, missed the playoffs in the women's tournament.
Although it's early and the playdown was the first event of the season for all six American teams, consider the results a bit of a forewarning for the U.S. Olympic trials in November.
(Photo: John Shuster in action during the 2024 KIOTI National in St. John's, N.L. Credit: Anil Mungal/GSOC).
