USGS Engineer Competes in Curling Club Nationals


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USGS Engineer Competes in Curling Club Nationals—Team Wins Silver

By Chris Polloni
May 2009

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Above: Cape Cod Curlers (left to right): Wendy Scholes, Marinna Martini, Elizabeth Abeltin, and Matina Heisler. [larger version]

Marinna Martini, an ocean engineer at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Woods Hole Science Center, and three teammates from the Falmouth, Massachusetts, area nearly achieved an upset victory at a national curling competition in March. Representing the local Cape Cod Curling Club, Matina Heisler, Elizabeth Abeltin, Wendy Scholes, and Martini captured a silver medal at the 2009 U.S. Club National Championships. Dozens of teams from across the country competed at the event, hosted by the Utica Curling Club in Whitesboro, New York. Heisler, the team's "skip" (captain), said that her squad went into the competition as major underdogs competing against more experienced athletes.

The team's final match, on March 14, came against the defending champions—the Duluth Curling Club from Minnesota—and was broadcast over the Internet. The Cape Cod team fell behind early in the match, then scored five points in the fourth end (10 ends is a full game) to take a 6-4 lead. The Minnesota team took control back with four points in the sixth end. The Cape Cod team tied the game in the eighth end, but Minnesota pulled ahead once more and won the gold by a final score of 10-9. In an article the next day, the Cape Cod Times quoted Russ Lemcke, president of the Cape Cod Curling Club, as saying that the team's silver win was "a big, big deal" and calling their performance against teams from across the United States "phenomenal."