Alaskan curlers shine on national stage, working to be America’s best
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - It’s a sport that captures the world’s imagination every four years when featured at the Olympic Winter World Games.
If you’re not familiar, curling is a team sport played on ice, where the goal is to get the “rocks” (polished granite stones) to their target area called the “house.”
Speaking of the house, a group from Alaska is hoping to bring some hardware home to the 49th State. The team, led by Greg Persinger, is competing in the Mixed Four National Championship in Denver, Colorado, this week.
After winning a regional play-down back in January, Team Persinger punched its ticket to nationals, now competing with teams from across the U.S., including Boston.
“This year, the mixed state play-downs was in Anchorage,” explained team skipper Greg Persinger. “We had a team come down from Fairbanks and then there was, I believe a couple teams from Anchorage, and we had to play a double round robin against those teams.”
Persinger says that his team is proud to represent Alaska at nationals, but it’s not his first rodeo.
“It’s always great to represent your state,” Persinger said. “I mean, lots of people at home are watching and so it’s pretty cool to have people cheering on from home. I’m used to it because ... I’ve been doing it for a long time.”
Each team competing is made up of two men and two women. Along with Persinger, the team representing Team Alaska includes Liz Odell Howe, Ealum Howe, and Sarah Smith.
While he’s competed and has been victorious at some of the highest levels of curling in the U.S., Persinger takes pride in his mixed fours team being put together somewhat recently.
“I’ve been playing with Sarah and Liz for probably the past year and a half or so, and Ealum, we’ve only played together probably, I don’t know, a couple of handful of times,” Persinger said.
Team Persinger started the tournament 3-0, the only team in their pool to do so.
“All games were very close,” Persinger said. “I mean, [there’s] very tough competition here. So every game is going to be pretty close for the most part. Not a lot of blowouts.”
Sarah Smith says she was just happy the team made it out of Alaska due to the uncertainty surrounding the potential eruption of Mount Spurr, which sits just a few dozen miles from Anchorage.
“We’ve put in a lot of work in preparation to get here,” Smith said. “So we were watching [the volcano] fervently. But to be able to represent a state at a national, I mean, you feel a lot of pride and you want to put your best foot forward.
“So everybody back home, our friends and family, really can get behind us and have something to root for.”
While the team has experienced early success, Smith says that they’ve had to acclimate to conditions in Denver.
“The ice here is vastly different than what we’re used to at home,” she explained. “And so there’s a pretty big adjustment ... so, on our home ice, our ice is maybe just a touch slower. It doesn’t curl as much.
“So there’s things that you have to do to adjust as far as the rotations on the stones, there’s a lot of like nerdy dynamics that get into getting the stone from point A to point B.”
Alaska’s team has adjusted well and seems to be hitting its stride with two more games in pool play Friday evening. If they come out of pool play with a one-seed, they advance straight to the semifinals.
“What makes it cool for me is like the level of play is exceptional,” Smith said. “You’re trying to stay so focused on your game and you’re literally playing next to an Olympian and a world champion curler and somebody that won the event last year. I mean, you’re watching the highest level of play, and at times it’s hard to stay focused on your game because you’re watching this next sheet and you’re like [gasp] ‘That was a really good shot!’”
The 2025 Curling Mixed National Championships wrap up Sunday.
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