Woodbury Resident Leads CT Curling Team to First Gold

The Kent Suslavich rink from Connecticut earned a spot in American curling history books with the U.S. National Curling Association’s first-ever mens title win at the Optimist U18 (Under 18) International Curling Championships held at the Cloverdale and Langley curling clubs in British Columbia, Canada last week.

As skip, Woodbury’s Suslavich and teammates Hunter and Caleb Clawson, of Clarksville, Md., and Will Pryor, of Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y., went 4-1 in round robin play against two rival U.S. mens teams from Minnesota and Washington, Alberta, British Columbia and Japan to reach the playoffs.

In the semifinals, the Connecticut team defeated Nova Scotia’s Adam Cocks team, 6-2, to advance to the gold-medal game. They won the event on Sunday afternoon with a 5-3 win over the previously undefeated Tanner Horgan rink of Northern Ontario.

This Gold Medal is the first for a U.S. mens team since the Optimist International Curling Championship was begun in 2001, and brings the Connecticut Team to the standing as Top World Seed in 2014.

The Connecticut team was coached by Don Arsenault, of Brick, N.J.

Suslavich is a junior at Nonnewaug High School and a Chapter Officer of the Ellis Clark Agricultural Science program. He began curling at the not-for-profit Nutmeg Curling Club located at the Wonderland of Ice in Bridgeport 5 years ago, an interest sparked by the Winter Olympics.

Curling, a Scottish sport, dates back to the 1600s and is widely known as “chess on ice” for its degree of difficulty to move granite rocks on specially treated “pebbled” ice toward a bulls eye 140’ away. Two teams with four players play eight ends for points.

Championship final, line score:
Northern Ontario (Horgan)                  00201000 – 3
Connecticut (Suslavich)                       01010111 – 5

Bronze-medal game:
Washington (Connolly)                  00010300 – 5
Nova Scotia (Cocks)                      01001011 – 4

Based off a release from USA Curling.