Congratulations to Team Campbell of Coyotes Curling Club for winning the USA Curling 5-and-Under National Championship in St. Paul this past weekend!
The team of Darren Campbell, Josh Bernstein, Jared Keesling, Paige Peterson, and Coach Mike Siggins made the playoffs as the second seed out of Pool D with a 3-2 record and the head-to-head over fellow MoPac Team Mewers (Orange County). In the quarterfinals, they faced Team Wysocki (Stevens Point) for the second time that day, this time pulling out a 10-8 win to advance to the semis. The semifinal match was a thrilling all MoPac (and mostly Coyotes) affair with Team Kunkel (Coyotes/Orange County) which resulted in an extra end conversion for the win. In the final, they faced the 2023 champions, Team Bliven (Green Bay/Appleton) in a tight back-and-forth with 3 blank ends and single points until the final end where Campbell made a fantastic hit-and-roll to steal 2 and secure the gold!
In the bronze medal match, Team Kunkel (Jeff Kunkel, Woody Hu, Hal Brown, Matt O’Brien, Coach Jeff Baird) took on the third MoPac team to advance to the playoffs – Team Hernandez (David Hernandez, Zach Altman, Peter Johns, Alec Mitchell / Orange County). In the end, it was Team Kunkel that emerged victorious with an 8-1 win to take home the bronze.
In total, 6 MoPac teams qualified for the 5U National Championship, 3 advanced to the playoffs, and 2 came home with medals! We are excited to see the growth of curling in the MoPac region and can’t wait to see what comes next for all of these curlers!
To read more on the 5U event from USA Curling here including links to the results, visit: https://www.usacurling.org/press-releases/2025fiveandundernationalschamps
