 Chaska, Minnesota's John Shuster (Photo: Bob Weder, USA Curling) went undefeated at the 2026 USA Curling Pan Continental Qualifiers, earning the right to represent the United States at the Pan Continental Championship in his home state of Minnesota this October. By Connor Simms, #22 World-ranked John Shuster, with Christopher Plys at third, Colin Hufman, and Matt Hamilton on the front end, had a strong start to their 2025-2026 season. The 2025-2026 season is full of World/Olympic qualifiers in USA Curling. The first one is wrapped up on the men's side, where they determined the 2025 Pan Continental Team. This was the inaugural Pan Continental qualifier event, as in the past, USA Curling sent the previous World Championship team. This was a double round-robin event with three teams. The three teams were decided by the already qualified teams for the 2025 Olympic Trials. This included John Shuster, Korey Dropkin (Duluth, MN) and Daniel Casper (Chaska, MN). On the women's side, the three teams are Tabitha Peterson (Chaska, MN), Delaney Strouse (Traverse City, MI) and Elizabeth Cousins (Nashua, NH). This event started on Friday morning for Shuster in Chaska, Minnesota, with the opening win against 2025 USA Curling National Champions Korey Dropkin 8-4. They then took on Daniel Casper Friday evening, taking another win 6-4. With the event having no playoffs and sending the best team after the double round robin, all Shuster needed was a win against Korey Dropkin to win the event. After a first end blank, Shuster stole 1 in the second end to take an early lead. After 2 blank ends, Shuster stole the fifth end, then forced Dropkin to a single in the sixth end. Dropkin then added a steal in the seventh end. Shuster scored a single in the eighth end to win 3-2. That win clinched Shuster a berth in the 2025 Pan Continental Championships in mid-October in Virginia and Eveleth, Minnesota. On the women's side, the double round robin finished with all three teams at a 2-2 record. This means tiebreakers were needed. Based on the draw to button scores, Peterson got a direct bye to the second tiebreaker, and Strouse and Cousins faced off in the first tiebreaker, where Strouse won 6-3. The second tiebreaker will be played at 2:00 pm Central Time (CT) on the Chaska Curling Centre YouTube page. |
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Calgary's Brad Jacobs (Photo: Curling Canada/Andrew Klaver) defeats Winnipeg's Matt Dunstone 6-5, winning 2 games to 0 in a best-of-three final at the Montana's Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in Halifax, N.
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