The Wayne State College Curling Club placed 14th overall in the USA Curling College National Championship last weekend in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

For practice, WSC Curling Club had been playing in an Omaha league almost every Sunday from late September to Nationals this March. They had 11 members on the team, with a majority of them being sophomores and seniors.

This season they competed in four tournaments, including nationals, in Wisconsin and two in Nebraska. The drive to Wisconsin from Wayne is roughly eight hours. Before they were allowed to use their allocated money from Student Senate toward travel, the team members had been paying for the expenses themselves.

“Up until I went into Senate this year, we had not been able to use any of our allocated money toward travel,” said senior Curling Club President Lily Roberts. “Before that, I was putting around 600 to 700 dollars into the club.”

Roberts said that being able to use their allocated money toward travel has really helped the club. Curling Club also fundraises for extra money by providing snow removal in Wayne.

“Last year we started doing snow removal service and we raised quite a bit of money from that,” said Roberts. “We also do a t-shirt fundraiser, and every once in a while, we will do a bake sale.”

There are five regions of competitive curling in the United States. WSC Curling is considered part of region five, along with UNL Curling and University of Oklahoma Curling. Throughout the season, teams are given a number of points.

“Teams get points for playing, so the more you play, the more points you get,” said Roberts. “If you win, then you get even more points. Since we are region five, we actually get more points because we travel so far to play.”

Points are cut off at the end of February and the top 16 schools from all five regions of the country qualify for Nationals. Since WSC was one of those 16 top schools, they qualified for Nationals. Since only four members can be on the ice, Roberts, Tucker Harders, Kalan Rogers, Evan Rose, and Hanna Vanderputten represented WSC.

At Nationals, the ’Cats started off the tournament with a tough loss to the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point on Friday afternoon. They then faced the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday morning, losing 9-3. They faced the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for their final match on Saturday afternoon and ended in 14th place overall.

“We may not be the most skilled or experienced, but overall as a team we are some of the most positive players,” said Roberts. “Over the last few years we have played our best games having fun, laughing and staying positive. And that’s something I will forever love about Wayne State Curling, I don’t think I would enjoy curling as much without these teammates and wouldn’t want it any other way.”

The University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point came out on top, defeating the University of Nebraska- Lincoln in the championship match 8-3.

“We call Stevens Point our spirit school, or ‘Wayne-Point’ because of our close friendship and deep roots with that school and their players,” said Roberts. “UNL Curling ended up in second place, who we play quite frequently, so it is nice to see our state well-represented at Nationals.”