SMITH, FARBELOW DEFEND SENIOR TITLES
[EDEN PRAIRIE, MN, January 19, 2025] — After several days of great curling in Wisconsin, Team Farbelow (Mike Farbelow, Rich Ruohonen, Bill Stopera, Darren Lehto) and Team Smith (Margie Smith, Norma O’Leary, Shelly Kinney, Shelly Kosal) both successfully defended their 2025 titles and emerged as national champions once again.
Twenty-six men’s teams and and fourteen women’s teams competed. Round-robin play was held at two Member Clubs—Kettle Moraine and Wauwatosa—with the playoff games at Kettle in Hartland, WI. The championship is open to competitors aged 50 and older, and brought together an impressive collection of veteran talent.
For Farbelow and his teammates, it was their third consecutive title. The team has won both silver and bronze at the World Senior Men’s Championship, and will challenge for gold in 2026.
Smith and her teammates are hardly strangers to the winners’ circle—not only did they defend their 2025 title but they can all now boast of multiple championships. For Smith, it was a record tenth title. It was also the seventh national championship for O’Leary, the second for Kinney, and the ninth for Kosal.
In the women’s final, Smith had to defeat a team that included Olympian Erika Brown at skip, former national champion Caitlin Pulli at third, Olympian Ann Swisshelm at second, and Elizabeth Demers at lead. It was a back-and-forth affair, with the teams trading three-enders in the fourth and fifth ends. In the eighth, following a measure, Brown took a single point to tie the game. Smith used hammer, and after another measure, scored one to capture the title.
In the women’s bronze medal game, Team Jackson (Kathy Jackson, Deneen Sebastian, Anna Merrett, Di Hicks) out of North Carolia topped Team Heinze (Michele Heinze, Heather Betzhold, Jane Lee, Debbie Wade)by a score of 6-2.
In the men’s final, Farbelow was thoroughly tested by Team Hedstrom (Bob Hedstrom, Chris Dolan [Fourth], Greg Jamieson, Matthew Jamieson). Tied at five after six ends, Farbelow scored an important deuce in the seventh end, before tacking on three more in the eighth as Hedstrom tried to force the extra end or secure three points for the win. The final score was 10-5.
The men’s bronze game featured Team LeClair (Bob LeClair, Fred Maxie, Jeff Baird, Brian Onken) from Arizona against Team Cerkvenik (Steve Cerkvenik, Andrew Hovland, Aaron Nunberg, Ken Olson) in a game that had no shortage of past champions—LeClair, Maxie, Baird, and Olson have all won this championship in the past. On Sunday, it was Team LeClair taking home the hardware, as they notched a 9-5 victory to claim bronze.
USA Curling Vice-Chair Tracy Lawless was on hand to open the event and was joined for the medal presentation by USA Curling Board member Brian Kopp.
USA Curling CEO Dean Gemmell added, “Being tested in championship play is always a great experience, whether you’re a junior curler or a competitor over the age of 50, and we are grateful to everyone from the Wisconsin Member Clubs that made this event a success. We know these teams will represent us well at the ACE & Company World Senior Championships in Geneva this April.”
Scores, statistics and other event information from this championship can be found here on the USA Curling website.
About USA Curling
Founded in 1958 and headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, USA Curling is the National Governing body for the Olympic sport of curling and the Paralympic sport of wheelchair curling in the United States. The mission of USA Curling is to grow, strengthen, and advocate for the Olympic and Paralympic sport of curling in the United States by prioritizing accessibility and programmatic development from grassroots to podium. USA Curling is sponsored by Columbia Sportswear, the Dale’s family of beers, Twin Cities Orthopedics, Training HAUS, Ice, Sports & Solar (ISS), Rock Solid Productions, Jet Ice, and Laurie Artiss. USA Curling is a proud member of World Curling and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee. To learn more, visit usacurling.org.
