CHAMPION: Ruohonen Wins 2018 USA Men's National Championship

Fourth
Greg
Persinger

SKIP
Rich
Ruohonen

Second
Colin
Hufman

Lead
Philip
Tilker

Rich Ruohonen (Seattle, WA) won 7-5 over Heath McCormick (Blaine, USA) in the Final of the USA Men's National Championship, held March 3 - 10, 2018 in Fargo, North Dakota.

Ruohonen finished 8-1 in the 10-team qualifying round. . In their opening game, Ruohonen defeated Jed Brundidge (Sioux Falls, SD) 8-4, then won 8-3 against McCormick and 6-4 against Alex Leichter (Boston, MA). Ruohonen won 6-3 against Pete Fenson (Bemidji, MN), then won 10-4 against Nicholas Connolly (Seattle, WA). Ruohonen went on to lose 6-5 against Todd Birr (Blaine, MN). Ruohonen responded with a 5-4 win over Kroy Nernberger (Blaine, MN). Ruohonen won 7-2 against Tucker Smith (Bismarck, ND), then won 6-2 against Scott Dunnam (Philadelphia, PA) in their final qualifying round match.

For winning the USA Men's National Championship Championship title, Ruohonen earned 33.716 world rankings points. Ruohonen move up 2 spots after posting a net gain of 32.16 points improving upon their best results so far this season, ranking 25th overall with 278.603 total points on the World Ranking Standings. Ruohonen ranks 20th overall on the Year-to-Date rankings with 162.766 points earned so far this season.

RECORD	W	L	T	PCT	HMR	STL	1PT	EEH	EES

SCORING	ENDs	PF	PA	PF/G	PA/G	+/-	EF/G	EA/G	PF/E	PA/E	BE/G

WITH HAMMER	ENDs	PF	PA	BE	4s	3s	2s	PF/E	PA/E	HE	SD

WITHOUT HAMMER	ENDs	PF	PA	BE	4s	3s	2s	PF/E	PA/E	FE	SE

Manitoba's Kate Cameron (Photo: Curling Canada) announced on Monday that the team will look different for the new Olympic quadrennial.