The Wisconsin Junior Championships were completed at the Portage Curling Club, Dec. 16-18, 2016. For the first time ever, the Junior Championships consisted of two competitions, the Wisconsin (Badger) Championships and the new U18 competitions. Andrea McDonald from Madison led her team to an undefeated record of 5-0 to win both the U18 competition and the Wisconsin Junior Women's Badger Championship. Curling with Andrea were Elizabeth Vorpahl - Portage, Rachel Kawleski and Suzanna Viau, from Stevens Point. 4 girls teams made up the field with the DaKotah Crotty rink from Pardeeville taking the runner-up spot.
On the boys side, 5 teams competed, with 3 teams in the U18 competition, who were joined by two U21 teams to complete the field for the Wisconsin Boys Badger Championship. With a perfect record of 5-0 Nick Steinhaus skipped his rink of JP Munich, Clay Osterhaus and Josh Heimerl to the Badger Championship. Taking the runner-up spot was the Wes Wendling team from Wausau. Wendling is in 7th grade, and his line-up consisted of 7th through 9th graders. They pushed the more experienced teams to the limit before bowing out in tie-breaker games on Sunday.
In the boys 18U competition Michael Elwing won two tie-breaker games against Wendling to capture the U18 title. Curling with Elwing were Trevor Marquardt, brother Ryan Elwing, and brothers Connor and Tyler Hipke. Marqaurdt is from Poynette, the rest of his teammates represent Wauwatosa Curling Club.
By winning their respective U18 competitions, the McDonald and Elwing teams have qualified for the U18 National Championships which are set for the Milwaukee Curling Club, Mar. 2-8, 2017. The Steinhaus team will be competing in the Junior Nationals, set for Fargo, Jan. 15-21.
For complete standings and line-scores of all games, click on the link.
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 Wisconsin 2017 Junior scoreboards.xls | 87.5 KB |