The rest of the field at the 5-and-Under National Championship

Tracking all of the 5-and-Under qualifiers is my biggest project every year. Not only do I use this information to help put together my newsletter, but I also send it off to be shared with all participating teams at the championship to assist them with peer seeding. While I have also worked to put together peer seeding databases for club and arena championships as well, my goal is that the peer seeding information will help give data to ideally create a more informed peer seeding process. The 5U field is the largest individual championship in the country requiring qualification, and as a former participant, trying to figure out who qualified where and have knowledge of the rest of the field is nearly impossible

This year, I tried to level up my process for collecting information, and as a result actively logged every single game from every single qualifier across the country. While some information was difficult to find, I was able to log 1,269 games across the 24 national championships. Before we look at the rest of the field, let’s take a look at some interesting numbers about the field.

596

The number of non-unique entries across the 24 qualifying events. This is an increase from the 561 entries in last year’s qualifiers. With my database this year, I was also able to keep track of “unique-ish” teams, those who individually met my “skip plus one” stat-keeping logic. We had over 370 teams meeting this “unique-ish” logic this season.

7

GNCC once again leads the way in regional representation with seven teams entirely from the Grand National Curling Club region. Last year, that total was 9 teams, but there are two teams in the field with curlers from multiple regions, and both of those teams have curlers from the GNCC. Both the MoPac and Wisconsin regions have 5 representatives apiece.

6

We saw a bump in women’s representation at the skip position this year with six teams qualifying with women at the helm, up from 4 last year. (It looks like a 7th skip has joined the mix, but did not skip a qualifier — check out the team previews to learn more.) By my count, the number of women in the field this year has increased by at least 40% from last year’s championship. This is a promising trend if we are going to see a women’s 5U championship in the future.

7 (again)

After a season with only two returning teams meeting my returnee/stat-keeping logic, seven teams are returning from the 2025 championship in St. Paul. Two teams from the 2024 championship who did not make it back in 2025 are returning to action in Seattle.

Meet the Teams

Teams are listed in alphabetical order.

Important note regarding my stat-keeping logic for 5-and-Under: 5U teams have varying rosters throughout the season and often play in many different iterations at events. When calculating records and/or comparing with past performances, I only combine the statistics from events where the team has the same skip and at least one other repeated teammate. (e.g. if 3 of the 4 team members of a team went 5-0 at two events, but they had a different skip for each event, I consider those two different 5-0 teams.)

Pool C

Dei (Potomac Curling Club)

Qualified via Potomac, Ardsley/Nutmeg, Triangle

The GNCC had three regional events serve as 5-and-Under qualifiers this season, and members of Team Dei pulled off an impressive sweep of those events with their 5U nationals roster winning the Kayser Mixed, skip Josh Dei winning the Dykes (men’s) with Conor McCadden while Jackie Sharp and Leena Hornlein won the Childs (women’s). The men’s and women’s teams at those events joined with Team Parira (mentioned in Part 1) to form some formidable men’s and women’s teams — it was like the 5U version of Rock League!

The 5U rosters skipped by Josh Dei this season posted a 21-6 record, and that’s not including the 5-0 record from Sharp’s rink at the Childs. This squad went 4-1 at 5U nationals last season but missed out on playoffs due to a 3-way tie decided by the draw shot challenge. I fully anticipate them to be in the hunt again this year.

Gumz (Portage, Madison, Stevens Point Curling Clubs)

Qualified via Stevens Point

Jacalynn Gumz is a newcomer to the 5-and-Under National Championships. Her team qualified by winning the Jingle Rocks 5U in Stevens Point and also finished as the runner-up in Portage a little more than a month after that. Gumz finished 3-3 against fellow 5U nationals teams this season, including victories over Mack, Papineau, and Vig in Stevens Point. Occasionally, Gumz and vice Anthony Worzalla would swap throwing order for certain games, and I’ll be interested to see if they do that once again in Seattle based on their matchups.

Nie (San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club)

Qualified via Evergreen

For the second consecutive year, Team Nie will appear at the 5-and-Under National Championships. The Bay Area team will be looking to improve on their 3-2 performance from last season where they missed the playoffs due to a head-to-head tiebreaker. They played in three events this season, posting a 12-2 record and going undefeated in the 15-team qualifier in Portland. Nie isn’t afraid to call (and make) aggressive draws which can cause challenges for top teams if the team has a good feel for drawing. They’ve got some stiff competition in the group for a top-2 playoff spot, but this is a team that should be in the running.

O’Donnell (Triangle Curling Club)

Qualified via Ardsley

It’s always fun for me to learn about possible lineup changes based on what’s in the Event Hub, and it appears that Kiera O’Donnell will be skipping the team based on their listed roster. With Pat Moran skipping, the team qualified at The Cool Duck in Ardsley, New York early in the season. Together, the team put together a 10-7 campaign over their four qualifying events. It appears O’Donnell may have skipped the team at the Kayser. I look forward to seeing how this lineup performs in Seattle.

Record (Madison, Milwaukee Curling Clubs)

Qualified via Madison

Once again, the runner-up from Madison’s Frozen 5-and-Under earned a spot at the national championship, and this year it was Hannah Record who won that distinction. Record played in just two events this season and posted a 7-3 record, but every single one of those losses was to a team in the national field. In the Madison final, I thought Record called a really excellent game, and some improved execution probably results in a win. If the team can execute the shots Hannah calls, they’ll be a test for each and every team in Pool C.

Swift (Denver Curling Club)

Qualified via Denver

Two years ago, Christian Rose showed up at his home club’s 5U qualifier without having played in other qualifiers and blitzed through the field, eventually finishing in 4th at that national championship. His teammate at this year’s club playdowns, Ryan Swift, is hoping to accomplish the same sort of feat. Swift did play in one other event this season, Frogtown, where he lost in the playoffs to Trevor Wysocki, but Swift’s performance on his home ice last month was impressive. His run included a win over the reigning 5-and-Under national champion, Darren Campbell, which ultimately stopped Campbell’s attempt to return to defend his title. They’ll need to put together a strong performance, but if they can perform like they did in Denver, watch out.

Pool D

Gilbert (Oval Curling Club)

Qualified via Coyotes

After this team made their national 5-and-Under debut in Chaska in 2024, they ran into some unfortunate luck last season in their quest to return to nationals. I had them pegged as the best team to not qualify last year, but Team Gilbert wasted no time booking their ticket to Seattle this season. They rattled off three consecutive wins in the playoffs against 2025 5U nationals teams, including reigning champion Darren Campbell, to win the Phoenix qualifier in October. On the season, they went 11-1 in 5U events and also were in the playoffs at the arena national championship last fall.

Hammond (Rocket City, Kettle Moraine Curling Clubs)

Qualified via Rocket City

Brad Hammond had a circuitous route to this year’s championship. While last year, he curled as a member of Abbey Carlson’s rink, this year he qualified without winning an event as a skip. He played as a member of Bekka Mack’s team with Kettle Moraine’s Matthew and David Wagoner in The Space Race. With Bekka and George Mack taking their Appleton squad, Brad and Sara Hammond will play with the Wagoners in Seattle, and Hammond’s skip from last year, Carlson, will serve as their alternate. Hammond did go 8-4 as a skip in 5U qualifying events this season.

Hodges (Great Smoky Mountains, Nashville, Rocket City Curling Clubs)

Qualified via Cincinnati

Like a number of other teams, Nate Hodges bounced around the country competing in multiple qualifiers this season. He was finally able to break through with his combined team from multiple clubs at the Queen City 5U a couple months ago. Hodges notched a win against Brad Hammond in Cincinnati in that event and posted a 10-2 record on the season. His vice, Mike Lopykinski, skipped a number of events this year on his own to a 17-6 record. These two have no shortage of games under their belt going into their national championship debuts.

Kunkel (Coyotes Curling Club)

Qualified via Drayton

For a while, it was looking like Jeff Kunkel might find himself on the outside looking in for this year’s championship after winning the bronze medal last season in St. Paul. Kunkel’s rink was the runner-up in Phoenix to begin the year, and three of his four losses came to national teams. The team made one last attempt to qualify by trekking to Drayton, North Dakota where they won the Dakota Territory 5U in convincing fashion. If they everything can start to click for them like it did last year, they’re going to be a podium threat once again.

Salmonson (Duluth Curling Club)

Qualified via Duluth

Duluth Curling Club will once again be represented at the 5-and-Under national championship after Tim Salmonson won his hometown Lakeside Curling 5-and-Under in January. My records had Bryan Sather as the skip, but I am unsure if this is a lineup change or simply how they were configured for that win. Sather skipped the team at the Frogtown qualifier as well this year, and the team posted an 8-3 record which included their win against Zach Vig in the Duluth final.

Tygert (Albany Curling Club)

Qualified via Ardsley/Nutmeg

As the Francis Dykes GNCC men’s bonspiel is the largest qualifying event in the country, the runner-up gets first dibs at the national championship in the event a team wins multiple qualifiers. As a result, I expect it was a bittersweet experience for Keith Tygert to be the runner-up to Josh Dei at the Dykes. Tygert lost the final, but that win was Dei’s second qualifier victory of the season, ensuring Tygert would be going to Seattle anyways. Tygert’s Albany rink went 10-5 on the season, and it’s good to see one of his teammates from the Kayser Mixed will be also joining the team as an alternate as the team gets their first taste of 5-and-Under nationals.

Podium Predictions

Gold: Wysocki (Stevens Point Curling Club)
Silver: Rice (Coyotes Curling Club)
Bronze: Gilbert (Oval Curling Club)

Every time I try to make my picks for any of the national championships I write about for my newsletter, it’s something of a crapshoot. The 5-and-Under National Championship is probably the epitome of said crapshoot. 5U has an incredible amount of variability on its own, and the playoff format of a single elimination, 8-team event makes it even more difficult to pick a podium as seeding matchups are even harder to predict.

Based on the entire body of work, I am going to go with Team Wysocki out of Stevens Point to get revenge on their loss to a Coyotes Curling Club team in the playoffs this year. This is an incredibly well-rounded team who also has multiple years of national championship experience on their side. While I see the MoPac region as having the highest level of 5U competition in the country, Wysocki’s experience coupled with strong resume means they are my team to curse pick for this year.

Some of what I said about Wysocki can also be said for newcomers Team Rice as well. I think they’re in great position to put Coyotes Curling Club back on top of the podium for a second consecutive season. I see them as able to hold their own against any type of playstyle, and as long as they can keep control of their emotions and nerves, this team is capable of beating anyone. The biggest question mark for me is how they handle the pressure and any adversity they may face.

I was struggling to choose between a number of teams for this final spot. It may seem like a poor choice to leave the only medalist returning from last year, Kunkel, off the podium, but I’m going to choose an arena team, Ramin Gilbert from the Oval, for the bronze medal position. They’re a very defensive team, and I wouldn’t be shocked if they’re the best hitting rink in the event this year. The defensive playstyle can be suffocating for some teams, but their ultimate success will come down to their ability generate points with hammer.

Recap Loading…

I’m excited to see how this final championship of the 2025-2026 season wraps up, and I hope you’ll find time to support the teams by watching the livestream provided by Seattle.

I’ll be back with a recap of the 5-and-Under National Championship, the Mixed Fours National Championship, and a look back at the Regions Cup final standings once the play in Seattle has come to a close.

Good curling!