By Maliik Jones, UNL Journalism & Mass Communications
With the 2023-24 College Curling season coming to a close, let’s take a look at the Emerging region’s championship results. Coming into the Cornhusker College Bonspiel, ten different universities participated at the John Breslow Ice Hockey Center on January 19-21. Even though this was an Emerging region event, some teams participated from the Midwest region. The top Emerging region team received a place in the USA Curling College National Championship on March 8-10, 2024.
Participating universities and their position within their respective region (as of 1/10/2024):
Emerging
#2 Nebraska-Lincoln – 17 Points
#4 Arizona State – 5 Points
#5 Bowling Green – 5 Points
#6 Nebraska-Omaha – 4 Points
#7 Creighton – 1 Point
#8 Denver – 0 Points
Midwest
#1 Wisconsin-Madison – 36 Points
#2 Wisconsin-Stevens Point – 33 Points
#3 Minnesota – 29 Points
#6 Michigan Tech – 16 Points
Each team played four matches in the first two days. Then, the results from those matches placed the top 8 teams into Sunday's finals matches: the 1st Event, Emerging Region Qualifier, which granted the winning team a chance to compete in the national championship, the 2nd Event, and the 3rd Event.
Each team’s final record was the following:
| Pool A | Pool B |
| Michigan Tech 4-0 | University of Minnesota 4-0 |
| Arizona State University 3-1 | University of Wisconsin-Madison 3-1 |
| University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2) 3-1 | University of Denver (2) 2-2 |
| University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (1) 3-1 | University of Nebraska-Lincoln (1) 2-2 |
| University of Nebraska at Omaha 1-3 | University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (2) 2-2 |
| University of Denver (3) 0-4 | Creighton University 1-3 |
| University of Denver (1) 0-4 | Bowling Green State University 0-4 |
Arizona State University competed against Denver 2 for the Emerging Qualifier, and ASU came out on top to earn their spot in the National Championship. This will be ASU’s first ever USA Curling College National Championship!
The rest of the Emerging region’s positions at nationals will be decided by the top regular season points finishers. Due to the region's size, the Emerging region will only have two other teams qualify through points. The current top two points leaders are the University of Toledo with 21 points and local team the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with 17 points.
There are two more regional championships to be held for the Northeast on February 9th and the Midwest on February 10th. These regions will have the top two teams qualify for nationals through their respective events. For the remaining national championship positions, the top two points leaders from the Midwest and the top seven points leaders from the Northeast will qualify. The USA Curling College National Championship will be held on March 8th in Rice Lake, Wisconsin.
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