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2012 U.s. national Championships Feb. 11-18, 2012 • Aston, PA
eath McCormick’s team captured the 2012 USA Curling National Championships on Feb. 18 for the team’s first national title win. Team McCormick dethroned Pete Fenson’s national champions, 5-4, in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 1,300 fans at IceWorks Skating Complex in Aston, Pa. “It’s incredible. It’s super exciting. It’s just kinda setting in at the moment,” said McCormick, 35, after the win. “Obviously, for the last day I knew that it was a possibility, but you have to tell yourself to stay in the moment even when it comes right down to it and not get too far ahead of yourself.” This was the second straight year a men’s team has advanced through the national championships undefeated. This is the first U.S. men’s title for McCormick (Sarnia, Ontario) and teammates Bill Stopera (Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.), Martin Sather (Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.) and Dean Gemmell (Short Hills, N.J.). They represented the U.S. at the 2012 World Men’s Championship March 31-April 8 in Basel, Switzerland. “Pretty damn exciting; we’ve been close in the playoffs the last two years. We got a new skip, and he’s a fantastic player,” said Gemmell after the win. “It’s really exciting. None of us have ever represented the U.S. in a world event. That’s exciting.” McCormick sealed the win with his first rock of the final end – a freeze that made Fenson’s final shot one with a high degree of difficulty. “A game like that you have to come and play great. They played great, and we made some mistakes,” Fenson said. “They capitalized and the couple of times they made a mistake, we couldn’t do that as well as we needed to. They just played terrific. They played great all week and went undefeated.” Despite the loss, Fenson (Bemidji, Minn.) and teammates Shawn Rojeski (Chisholm, Minn.), Joe Polo (Duluth, Minn.) and Ryan Brunt (Bemidji, Minn.) have accomplished one goal – qualifying for the 2014 U.S. Olympic Team Trials (along with Team McCormick). “That was our No. 1 goal. We agreed we wanted to win all the nationals between now and then and try to win a world championship because we still haven’t done that,” said Fenson, who has won nine U.S. titles and bronze at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. “But we also want to go back and upgrade our medal from the Olympics so we had to qualify for the Trials ... and we did that. Once the pain starts to go away from the loss, we have that to look forward to.” The live webstreaming throughout the 2012 Nationals, courtesy of the 12th End Sports Network and the U.S. Olympic Committee, brought in 189,428 unique viewers throughout the weeklong competition. The 2013 Nationals will take place Feb. 916, 2013, at the Cornerstone Community Center in Green Bay, Wis. Heath McCormick celebrates moments after cliniching his first U.S. national title. Photo courtesy of Stephan’s Fine Photography
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