The Wayne State College Curling Club overcame a couple of academically prestigious universities at nationals last weekend.

WSC beat Penn and MIT en route to placing eighth at the National College Curling Association’s (NCCA) national tournament held March 10-12 in Utica, N.Y.

The University of Minnesota won the national championship, while the University of Nebraska took second. A total of 16 teams competed, mostly from the Midwest and East Coast.

It was WSC’s highest finish ever at nationals. Last year the team did not win any games at the national tournament. This year the ’Cats finished with two wins and three losses.

WSC started off the first bracket with a win against the University of Pennsylvania, the defending champions. How a team finishes ranked in its bracket determines who it play in the next bracket.

“That was a pretty good moment to get started off with,” Curling Club President Lily Roberts said.

After defeating Pennsylvania, WSC lost to the University of Minnesota and Hamilton. WSC got back on track to beat MIT to advance to the next bracket.

In the second bracket, each team plays one game to determine the final results. For example, the top two teams play for first, the next two for third and so on.

The ’Cats played St. Norbert’s for fifth place, but lost and fell to eighth place.

“We did really good overall,” Roberts said. “It was a pretty good improvement from last year.”

Team members who competed at nationals were Roberts, Kalen Rogers, Evan Rose, Kyle Newman and Craig Ackman.

It was only the fourth national tournament to be sponsored by the NCCA. The tournament is overseen by the United States Curling Association, which also oversees the USA Olympic team and the junior national team.

The team made the drive all the way to New York, 21 hours from Wayne. The curling club also had to raise most of its own money. The college paid for the hotel, while the club had to pay for everything else.