2017 United States Olympic Curling Trials

2017 United States Olympic Curling Trials
Host city	Omaha, Nebraska
Arena	Baxter Arena
Dates	November 11–18, 2017
Men's winner	John Shuster
Curling club	Duluth CC, Duluth, Minnesota
Skip	John Shuster
Third	Tyler George
Second	Matt Hamilton
Lead	John Landsteiner
Finalist	Heath McCormick
Women's winner	Nina Roth
Curling club	Four Seasons CC, Blaine, Minnesota
Skip	Nina Roth
Third	Tabitha Peterson
Second	Aileen Geving
Lead	Becca Hamilton
Finalist	Jamie Sinclair

The 2017 United States Olympic Curling Trials were held from November 11-18, 2017[1] at Baxter Arena in Omaha, Nebraska. Five teams qualified for the men's tournament and three teams qualified for the women's tournament. The winner of each tournament represented the United States at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang County, South Korea.

Road to the Trials

USA Curling used a number of selection criteria to determine which teams would qualify for the Olympic Trials.[2] If an American team placed in the top five at the 2017 World Men's Curling Championship or 2017 World Women's Curling Championship, that team would automatically qualify for the Olympic Trials. The John Shuster and Nina Roth rinks qualified via this method. Next, teams had an opportunity to qualify for the Olympic Trials by placing in the top 15 of the World Curling Tour Order of Merit standings for the 2016-17 season. No US teams placed high enough in these standings to automatically qualify in this manner. The final criterion used for inclusion in the trial was a discretionary selection by USA Curling's Olympic Team Selection Committee. The committee was required to choose some number of teams for each tournament to ensure that there were a minimum of three and a maximum of five teams competing. The committee chose three men's teams and two women's teams.[3] A fifth team, skipped by Todd Birr, was added to the men's tournament after a successful appeal to the USCA Judiciary Hearing Panel, alleging that the Olympic Team Selection Committee erred in its decision not to include Team Birr in the tournament.[4]

Men

Teams

Five teams qualified for the men's tournament:[5]

Skip	Third	Second	Lead	Alternate	Locale	Qualification method
John Shuster	Tyler George	Matt Hamilton	John Landsteiner	Joe Polo	Duluth, Minnesota	Top 5 finish at 2017 World Men's Curling Championship
Heath McCormick	Chris Plys	Korey Dropkin	Tom Howell	Rich Ruohonen	Blaine, Minnesota	Discretionary selection
Brady Clark	Greg Persinger	Colin Hufman	Philip Tilker		Seattle, Washington	Discretionary selection
Craig Brown	Jason Smith	Kroy Nernberger	Sean Beighton	Quinn Evenson	Madison, Wisconsin	Discretionary selection
Todd Birr	John Benton	Hunter Clawson	Tom O'Connor		Blaine, Minnesota	Appeal to USCA Judiciary Hearing Panel

Round Robin Standings

Final Round Robin Standings

Key
	Teams to Final
	Teams to Tiebreaker

Skip	W	L	PF	PA	Ends Won	Ends Lost	Blank Ends	Stolen Ends	Shot Pct.
John Shuster	6	2	49	42	33	31	11	10	81%
Heath McCormick	5	3	53	39	31	28	13	9	82%
Todd Birr	5	3	47	49	33	29	13	8	82%
Craig Brown	3	5	42	47	31	31	13	9	82%
Brady Clark	1	7	45	59	28	37	8	7	79%

Round Robin Results

All draw times are listed in Central Standard Time (UTC−6).

Draw 1

Saturday, November 11, 1:00 pm

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
John Shuster	1	0	0	0	1	0	2	1	0	2	7
Brady Clark	0	1	0	2	0	2	0	0	1	0	6

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Craig Brown	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	X	X	X	3
Heath McCormick	0	4	0	1	1	0	2	X	X	X	8

Draw 2

Saturday, November 11, 7:00 pm

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Todd Birr	0	0	1	0	0	2	0	1	0	X	4
Craig Brown	1	3	0	2	0	0	1	0	1	X	8

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Brady Clark	0	0	1	0	0	2	1	0	1	0	5
Heath McCormick	2	1	0	0	2	0	0	2	0	1	8

Draw 3

Sunday, November 12, 1:00 pm

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Heath McCormick	1	1	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	X	5
John Shuster	0	0	2	0	2	0	0	2	1	X	7

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Todd Birr	0	2	0	1	0	1	1	2	0	2	9
Brady Clark	0	0	2	0	2	0	0	0	2	0	6

Draw 4

Sunday, November 12, 7:00 pm

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Final
John Shuster	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	2	0	1	6
Craig Brown	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	2	0	5

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Heath McCormick	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	4	X	6
Todd Birr	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	X	2

Draw 5

Monday, November 13, 11:00 am

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
John Shuster	0	0	2	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	5
Todd Birr	1	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	1	1	8

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Craig Brown	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	1	1	5
Brady Clark	0	2	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	0	6

Draw 6

Monday, November 13, 7:00 pm

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Craig Brown	0	2	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	6
Heath McCormick	0	0	0	2	2	0	1	2	0	1	8

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Brady Clark	2	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	X	6
John Shuster	0	0	2	2	1	0	0	2	0	X	7

Draw 7

Tuesday, November 14, 11:00 am

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Todd Birr	0	0	2	1	0	1	0	3	0	2	9
Brady Clark	1	1	0	0	3	0	1	0	2	0	8

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
John Shuster	0	2	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	0	6
Heath McCormick	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	1	5

Draw 8

Tuesday, November 14, 7:00 pm

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Heath McCormick	1	0	1	0	0	5	X	X	X	X	7
Brady Clark	0	1	0	1	0	0	X	X	X	X	2

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Todd Birr	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	5
Craig Brown	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	3

Draw 9

Wednesday, November 15, 11:00 am

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Brady Clark	2	0	0	3	0	0	1	0	X	X	6
Craig Brown	0	1	2	0	1	2	0	1	X	X	7

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
John Shuster	2	0	2	0	2	1	X	X	X	X	7
Todd Birr	0	1	0	1	0	0	X	X	X	X	2

Draw 10

Wednesday, November 15, 7:00 pm

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Final
Heath McCormick	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	6
Todd Birr	0	1	0	2	1	0	1	0	1	0	2	8

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Craig Brown	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	2	5
John Shuster	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	4

Tiebreaker

Thursday, November 16, 8:30 am

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Heath McCormick	2	0	2	0	1	1	1	1	0	0	8
Todd Birr	0	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	6

Final

The final round was between the top two teams at the end of the round robin. The teams played a best-of-three series.

Final


1	John Shuster	3	9	7

2	Heath McCormick	5	4	5

Game 1

Thursday, November 16, 6:00pm

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
John Shuster	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	X	3
Heath McCormick	0	1	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	X	5

Player percentages
John Shuster		Heath McCormick
John Landsteiner	87%	Tom Howell	84%
Matt Hamilton	80%	Korey Dropkin	94%
Tyler George	78%	Chris Plys	79%
John Shuster	71%	Heath McCormick	91%
Total	79%	Total	87%

Game 2

Friday, November 17, 6:30pm

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
John Shuster	0	3	0	1	0	0	1	0	4	X	9
Heath McCormick	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	X	4

Player percentages
John Shuster		Heath McCormick
John Landsteiner	99%	Tom Howell	92%
Matt Hamilton	93%	Korey Dropkin	79%
Tyler George	96%	Chris Plys	77%
John Shuster	94%	Heath McCormick	82%
Total	96%	Total	82%

Game 3

Saturday, November 18, 6:30pm

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
John Shuster	3	0	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	7
Heath McCormick	0	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	5

Player percentages
John Shuster		Heath McCormick
John Landsteiner	97%	Tom Howell	96%
Matt Hamilton	89%	Korey Dropkin	82%
Tyler George	82%	Chris Plys	85%
John Shuster	90%	Heath McCormick	89%
Total	90%	Total	88%

Women