The Brock Badgers men's curling team made their second consecutive national championship appearance.
Taking place at the Lethbridge, AB at the Lethbridge Curling Club, the round robin portion of the 2025 U SPORTS Championships started on Monday, Feb. 24 and concluded on Thursday, Feb. 27.
Despite having a positive 4-3 showing, the Badgers were unable to move forward to into the semifinal round that is set to start tomorrow Friday, Feb. 27 due to the tiebreaker rules.
Stuck in a four-way tie with the Calgary Dinos, Carleton Ravens and UNB Reds, the Badgers came out on the wrong side with a combined 1-2 record against those teams.
"It's a very hard way to end your season," said head coach Jordan Thin. "Their ability to bounce back was on full display and the last two games were some of our strongest this entire year."
The team consisted of skip Owen Henry, third Victor Pietrangelo, second Graham Dix, lead Patrick Sipura and alternate Daniel Krowchuk.
To start the tournament off, the Badgers fell in an 8-3 decision in seven ends to the Calgary Dinos. It was a close contest after six ends, with the Dinos up just 4-3 but a four-ender in the seventh sealed the win.
"We only had one poor performance at these nationals," Thin said. "Everything else has been great quality, playing their best when they absolutely had to."
Showing resilience, the Badgers bounced back with a 4-3 win over the Memorial Seahawks to start Day 2 on Wednesday, Feb. 25. A two-point eighth end helped reverse the Badgers' fortunes as they were down 3-2 after six frames.
The Badgers then suffered consecutive losses to their provincial rivals, the Carleton Ravens and the Laurier Golden Hawks.
It was a close battle with the Ravens to round out their Tuesday action as they lost 7-4.
The next day on Wednesday, Feb. 26 , they opened with a 6-3 defeat to the Golden Hawks. After two scoreless ends in the sixth and seventh, Laurier solidified their 4-3 lead with two points in the eighth.
The Badgers then showed dominance in their next two contests with blowout victories over the host Lethbridge Pronghorns and UNB Reds.
In their highest scoring contest of the week, the Badgers registered two four-enders in the first and sixth frames to best the Pronghorns 12-1 en route to the contest being conceded after six ends.
The matchup with the Reds saw a hot start from the Badgers as they scored three in the first end and didn't give up control after that, winning 6-1 in six ends.
To wrap up their week, Brock took on Regina and doubled them up by a score of 4-2. A key two-point third end followed by a two-point steal in the fourth helped give the Badgers the win.
This marks the end of the season for the Brock men's curling team who made it to the national competition for the second consecutive season.
"I'm very proud of their individual efforts and dedication to improve," Thin said. "They're a fantastic group to be around and represented Brock University well."
