EVELETH — With the ice cleared for the final match, the unmistakable sound of gliding rocks and the shouts of sweeping directions echoed through Curl Mesabi from the end sheet. 

There’s a distinct feeling sitting in the midst of the quiet tension of competition, when it’s isolated without a cheering crowd. Like a Clint Eastwood western duel set in an empty, cavernous arena. You can hear the teams thinking through strategies. And like a guns-out showdown, everything on this Sunday is down to one shot. 

One competition. One last sheet of ice from the eight that were active all week. One last match of the 84 scheduled. One champion from the 48-team field. On the line, one spot in February’s Olympic trials in Colorado. 

Among the mixed doubles teams there were former Olympians, national qualifiers from years past, teams that have come close, the hopefuls and the underdogs. Nine spots were filled when the teams left Eveleth. One points qualifier spot would be left to vie for as the season winds down, but the reality for most of them at Curl Mesabi last week was that it would be win or stay home. 

“One last chance at the Olympic dream,” said Phill Drobnick, national team director for USA Curling and coach of the 2018 gold medal team.

Ann Podoll and Nate Parry had an ease about them Saturday morning as the final pool play stretch was about to start. They were the event’s top seed and the North Dakota team went undefeated through pool play. 

They played well in their draws and had a feel for the ice, Podoll said. That meant downtime for most of the day, most notably a planned trip to Canelake’s Candies in Virginia, a short jog from their hotel. 

The pair’s easy going nature deflects the pressure one might feel. Winning helps. So does experience. Podoll and Parry have been to mixed doubles nationals a number of times since 2018 and they’re comfortable in the competition there. Qualifying this year would be a little extra special, as the Lafayette, Colorado site is a mere 20 miles from Parry’s hometown of Denver, but that won’t change the approach and mentality.

“Pressure is a privilege and I don’t think any of the teams would be here if there weren’t some of that pressure, some of that dream on the line,” Parry said. “Obviously you want to win and perform. There’s some of that, but I think we both channel it in a positive, upbeat way.”

Stephanie Senneker and Marcus Gleaton missed qualifying for nationals by one spot last year. It stung. They missed the last two events that could have qualified them, and nationals were held in Traverse City, Michigan, their home state.

They’ve played together for the last 10 years out of the Kalamazoo, Michigan club Gleaton helped start, but this is only the second competitive run for the team. They rebounded from a first draw loss to go 2-1 in pool play and earn a berth in the playoff round, with Eveleth’s World’s Largest Hockey Stick on their to-do list Saturday morning.

Playing together outside competition allowed them to get to know each other and gain a feel for their games, Gleaton said. When it was time to dig in, the foundation was there, and it was someone they each enjoyed playing alongside. Becoming competitive wasn’t as much a change in play style as it was a different approach to preparation and focus.

“At a beerspiel it’s like, whatever, if we lose we still drink. Great,” Senneker said. “I don’t want to do that here. I’m here to win. So there’s a different intensity to it, but you have to balance that with not being too tight, staying a bit loose, and that’s the toughest part.”

Nina Roth and Kroy Nernberger have won three bronze medals at the mixed doubles nationals, their last in 2019. Roth is a two-time Olympian with the women’s national team, and Nernberger made one world championship as a Team Shuster alternate in 2016.

Roth retired from competitive curling after the 2022 Olympics, and Nernberger had curled with Rich Ruohonen’s team through 2022, while also competing in mixed doubles that year with Tara Peterson.

They returned to compete again, and with their past success were one of the teams to beat in Eveleth. 

“We both enjoy curling together and enjoy competitive curling,” Roth said. “And with this being kind of the last chance, we just thought ‘Why not?’”

Curling is a unique sport in how the athletes at the very top of the sport can blend into the crowd of weekend warriors. Few would blame a casual observer for mistaking John Shuster, the skip of Team USA’s only Olympic gold medal team in the sport and one of the country’s 2022 flag bearers, for anybody else as he mingled around Curl Mesabi during the tournament.

The sport’s access to the very best, and how the origin stories of its aspiring competitors intersect with their careers, is part of curling’s ho-hum, everyperson beauty. 

Parry’s introduction was in 2009, when his dad took him to the national championships in Broomfield, Colorado. They knew little to nothing about the sport, but saw a round robin game featuring Shuster and Todd Birr, and joined a league later that week.

“They both think that story’s super funny and makes them feel very old,” Parry said. “I was in middle school, and now I play against them frequently.”

Senneker was swept up in curling during the 2010 Winter Olympics. The results were unkind to both U.S. teams that year, but the Michigan State student was nonetheless fascinated by the sport. 

“I commandeered a television at the student union and was like ‘Nobody change this channel, it’s curling time!’,” she recalled. 

Senneker looked up how to get involved in curling and found the Kalamazoo club, where she would attend the national championships that year and participate in curling lessons at the end of the day’s competitions. The U.S. women’s championship team that year featured Roth.

The four-year bump after the Olympics has raised curling fandom before, and it exploded after the 2018 gold medal run by Team Shuster. Teams at Curl Mesabi represented 67 cities from 17 states, arriving from both coasts, Texas, the Carolinas and more.

Mixed doubles became an organized part of curling in 2008, and the 2018 Olympics marked its debut at the highest level. Podoll said the faster-paced dynamic of doubles matches was a great addition to the games, and opened it up to more opportunities. Getting to the Olympics is the dream, but playing against the best in the country at trials is a great opportunity for teams, too, she said. 

“I think anyone who’s ever thrown a curling rock has at least a little bit of that in the back of their mind, that it’s an Olympic sport,” Parry said. 

Gleaton had not seriously thought about the Olympics as they prepared for the week and a run at nationals. The idea they could get hot at the right time and make a run? “It would be the Cinderella story of them all, but they happen, don’t they?”

Senneker had thought about wearing the colors and representing the country. She imagines it at every curling club when she sees the flag waving outside, and at Curl Mesabi where Shuster can be spotted and Drobnick’s career journey is displayed prominently.

“I’d be floating. I’d be levitating. It would be incredible,” she said. “I wouldn’t be responsible for my actions.”  

Roth has been there twice in 2018 and 2022, and the goal is to return. It’s not just reaching the pinnacle that made the experience what it was, calling it an “amazing honor” being part of Team USA. It was also meeting U.S. athletes from across the sports spectrum that earned their way there.

It’s something her teammate is hoping to experience for the first time.

“That’s something I always strive for,” Nernberger said. “So this is maybe not my last chance — but probably one of,  if not the last chance. I’m excited to give it a go.”

Playoff games are the worst time in sports to have something go wrong. One bad game, one lopsided end, one mistake and you’re going home. That’s why sports can be such a humbling experience.

Podoll and Parry, the top seed of the weekend went 3-0 in pool play and outscored those opponents 23-11. They lost in the first round of the single-elimination bracket 8-2. 

Their easy going nature? Still there afterward. Sometimes you just get punched in the gut. Madison, Wisconsin was next, where they hit the ice again today at the Madhouse Doubledown, pushing for the last points spot. 

Senneker and Gleaton won four straight draws after losing their first, including a 10-1 win in the quarterfinal over the team that defeated Podoll/Parry. Down to the final four, they were handed an 11-3 defeat.

In the finals, Roth and Nernberger were in a 4-4 tie after four ends against Sara Olson and Coleman Thurston. They posted six points in the fifth end — the worst end of the weekend for Olson/Thurston — to punch their national ticket with a 10-4 victory.

They also head back to Madison, their home curling club, but with a trip to Colorado clinched and more practice time ahead.

“It’s time to go home and get work,” Roth said. “I’ll get out of retirement for a little bit, a few months, and go put on a good show.”