Penn’s curling team placed first at the 2023 College Curling National Championship on March 12.
Qualifying for the National Championships at sixth place overall, the four-person team traveled to the Black Swamp Curling Center in Bowling Green, Ohio, to compete against the top 16 teams in the country based on tour points following the regular season competitions. Penn defeated Princeton 6-3 to take home the championship title.
Last year, Penn Curling finished second at the National Championships in Fargo, North Dakota, losing in the finals to University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. They qualified for Nationals at the same ranking of sixth.
This year’s team consisted of College senior Sophie Legler as the skip, Engineering master’s student William Muldowney as the vice, College freshman Joseph Katz as the second, and Engineering junior Hugo Sandoval as the lead.
“Curling is a very mental game. If you get into the wrong headspace, that can affect your shot,” Muldowney said. “So, a key part of that is making sure your team is not getting too much in their own head. As a team, we all did that very well.”
The tournament was played in a four pool round-robin format. In the first round-robin stage, Penn defeated all three of their competitors, winning 12-4 against MIT and 8-3 against Cornell. They also avenged their loss last year to the reigning champions, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, in a close 6-5 game.
“Once we had beaten the number one seed and defending champs in the round-robin, we realized maybe we can actually win this,” said Legler.
In the quarterfinals, Penn defeated University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point again in another close 5-4 game. Penn then beat the University of Minnesota in the semifinals, before winning against Princeton Curling in the finals.
“It just felt surreal. This team has been my baby, especially the past three years of me being president and trying to keep it alive over Covid,” Legler said. “It was so rewarding to win Nationals and be able to prove that it was worth all the effort and time and commitment.”
Sandoval echoed these sentiments.
“After we won, it was unbelievable. I was just thinking about all the hard work that led up to it and just how far I've come personally as a curler from having just a semester worth of curling,” Sandoval said.
Despite not having prior curling experience, Katz was able to join the team immediately because they only had three returning players. He competed in the season’s first tournament in Philadelphia having only attended one team practice.
“If you are at a college with a team, there’s a low barrier to entry,” Katz said. “You can show up with not much experience and be competitive because there’s not that many people doing it.”
Meanwhile, Muldowney and Legler have been curling long before coming to Penn. Muldowney started curling as a freshman at his undergraduate school, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Legler began curling when she was eight years old and comes from generations of curlers.
Legler became captain of the Penn Curling Team her freshman year and has been the club president since her sophomore year, navigating the difficulty of keeping the club alive and recruiting new members throughout the pandemic.
“It was really cool to go from teaching [Katz and Sandoval] how to curl to then all four of us winning the whole thing. It was a great way to end my four years,” Legler said.
Legler’s mother serves as the team’s unofficial coach during the regular season. Occasionally, she would FaceTime into the practices to look at the team’s form and offer advice. The team is allowed a coach at Nationals to discuss with the team during gameplay, so Legler’s mother held that position at Nationals.
When asked about next season, Katz said he was optimistic, despite the team losing some players who are graudating.
”Hopefully we can find some people who want to compete with us and are willing to put in the time,” Katz said. “We might not perform quite as well next season, but we’ll definitely have a fun time.”
Legler and Muldowney were voted in by their peers as 2022-2023 College Curling All-Americans. Legler was selected for the East Region 1st team, and Muldowney was selected for the East Region 2nd team.
The College Curling All-American program was created last year, recognizing the top college curlers who participated in the USA Curling College Tour and Championship.
With the championship primarily dominated by midwestern teams, Penn is the only East Coast team to have won the National title since the US Curling Association-sanctioned National Tournament was created in 2013.
This is the second National title for Penn Curling, having previously won in 2016.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
Donate