Two U.S. Curling Crowns Clinched, One To Go

Two out of three U.S. 2025 Olympic Team Trials titles were decided on Saturday, but the third game of the day – one of the best American curling battles in recent memory – meant another curling Sunday in Sioux Falls, SD.

In the first Saturday matchup, Laura Dwyer and Steve Emt won their second straight game in mixed doubles wheelchair curling 9-7 over Penny Ricker and David Samsa. That won the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials title and clinched their berth in the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games, scheduled for March in Italy.

Dwyer/Emt are the defending national champions, and they qualified USA into the new Paralympic discipline via their finish at the 2025 world championship.

Emt, a former walk-on basketball player for the UConn Huskies, was featured in a 2021 video podcast at The Curling News.

In the second draw of the day, Team Tabitha Peterson also made it two playoff wins in row over their opposition – the Elizabeth Cousins foursome of Nashua, NH – and are set to represent USA at the Olympic Qualifying Event in Kelowna, B.C. next month.

Cousins, who finished second behind Peterson in the women’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials round robin and won a tiebreaker to make the best-of-three finals, fought gamely but an eight-end deuce extended Peterson’s lead to 7-4. The champs added another steal in the ninth.

At Kelowna, Peterson will be gunning for her third straight trip to the Olympics. She played third for Nina Roth at PyeongChang 2018 and took over as skip for Beijing 2022, finishing 4-5 both times.

Peterson is backed by sister Tara Peterson, Cory Thiesse – who will compete with Korey Dropkin in Olympic Mixed Doubles at Cortina, Italy – and Taylor Anderson-Heide.

The evening draw provided wall-to-wall drama, as John Shuster fought off a determined Danny Casper to win Game 2 and extend their best-of-three playoff to a third and climactic final match.

After Shuster scored a pair in the eighth end for a 5-3 lead, Casper’s Chaska, MN foursome fought back with a huge three-ender in the ninth to lead 6-5 and set the table for more dramatics.

In the end, the veteran Duluth, MN skip Shuster – fighting once again for his Olympic Trials life – drew the four-foot rings for his winning deuce to force Sunday’s finale (6:00 p.m. CT, NBC Peacock and USA Network).