Feb. 15, 2024
Wausau curling fans will be watching the World Junior Men’s Championships closely this week.
Two Wausau curlers—Wes Wendling, a Wausau West graduate, and Jackson Armstrong, Appleton native now curling at Wausau—are two of the four on the US team competing against the world’s best in Lohta, Finland. The team, which includes Jackson Bestland and Caden Hebert of Eau Claire, and Kevin Tuma of St.Paul, is one of 10 to make it to the Worlds. They qualified last year by finishing second and earning Silver medals at the World Junior B tournament, also in Finland.
Both Wendling and Armstrong are looking forward to throwing rocks against the finest. “We are super proud that we qualified for Junior Worlds and won a silver medal. The experience was a dream come true and I couldn’t wish to spend it with anyone else, we had a great time. I can’t wait to do it again in February!” said Wendling.
Armstrong noted the team has been competing at men’s championship events in Detroit , Duluth and New Jersey recently ”Before we know it, we’ll be back in Finland shortly after Men’s Nationals,” he said recently.
“When we arrive, we hope to make the playoffs and earn another medal. This time, it would be against the top ten junior teams in the world.”
The action begins tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 17, at 1:00 a.m. our time with the US team playing Italy.
The rest of the schedule has them on the ice against Norway and Scotland on Sunday, Denmark on Monday, China and Germany on Tuesday. On Wednesday, they face Canada, and then close out round-robin play Thursday against New Zealand and Switzerland. Quarter and semi-finals will follow with the finals on Saturday, Feb. 24.
Competition can be followed on livesscores.worldcurling.org. Finland is 13 hours ahead of U.S. central time.