Lemke makes return trip to women’s nationals

By any reasonable standard Jackie Lemke has had an enviable career.

The Medford curler has competed on both the national and international level at both the junior and women’s competition.

She has competed at seven U.S. Women’s National Championships earning one silver and two bronzes, competed at the Mixed National Championships three times earning two silver and a bronze.

The one achievement Lemke hopes to accomplish is to help bring her team to the Olympics and represent the United States. She has competed in the Olympic Team Trials in 2014 where her team took third, and in 2010 where they took seventh.

With a new team and in a new position, Lemke is keeping her Olympic dreams alive heading into the US Women’s Nationals that will be held in Wausau May 26 to May 30. At stake is a national championship, but more importantly the first and second place teams will have the opportunity to compete next fall in the Olympic Qualifiers.

The 2020-2021 season has been a challenging one for curlers across the world as COVID-19 restrictions kept many curling facilities closed and curtailed the ability for ice time for others. Into this mix, Lemke was tapped to join the team skipped by Christine McMakin and serve in the position of third/vice-skip.

McMakin has her own impressive list of credentials including silver at junior worlds, bronze at the women’s nationals and gold medals in junior nationals.

In recent years, Lemke curled with skip Cassie Potter’s team, but that team took time off this year leaving Lemke to be picked up by the McMakin team.

Joining a new team is always a challenge, Lemke said, as players adjust to each other’s style of play and methods of communication.

Typically, a nationally competitive team would play multiple bonspiels and cash spiels through the season to work on team development. However, with most of those events canceled, the team has had most of its playing experience this season at “funspiels.” However, as Lemke noted, time spent actually playing the game is valuable.

She noted that she feels ahead of some of the other curlers in the field of competitors because the Medford Curling Club made the decision to open this year, one of very few clubs in the state to do so. She said this was important in giving her a place to practice frequently with her father, Jeff Mueller, but gave her teammates a place where they could also come and practice and compete. “They love Medford,” she said of her teammates.

“I am lucky that my dad is able to practice with me,” she said, noting that it is hard this year with the competition occurring in a bubble at Wausau Curling Club and knowing that even though it is close by her parents won’t be able to come watch her compete in person.

The bubble will be an interesting experience for Lemke. To reduce the chances of athletes contracting or spreading COVID-19, the players must come to the event with a negative test and they are limited to being in their hotel or at the ice. In addition, they are limited in their interaction with other players, volunteers and members of the ice crew. This is far different than in other years when there was more interaction. Lemke said another difference this year is that the event will be held on club rather than arena ice.

What is bad about the bubble is that fans will not be allowed to watch in person, but a schedule of games has been set up to be livestreamed in partnership with TESN (10th End Sports Network.) In addition to her father, Lemke also thanks Medford ice maker Mitch Mertens for making sure that she had excellent practice ice for her and her team when they came to Medford. Mertens is also at Nationals as part of the national ice making team.

One of the things Lemke had concerns about going into the season was the age difference between her and her teammates. At 36, and the mother of two children, Lemke is more than a decade older than her teammates and was not sure how well she would fit in with them. She said that given her years of experience, her teammates would often turn to her as a mentor as well as teammate. “That is not a role I wanted,” she said.

“I would much rather be an athlete than a coach on the ice,” Lemke said. She said many of these concerns have been alleviated by their current coach who has coached Lemke before. She said she feels the team has come together well and with the ability to get playing time this year is ahead of some in the field of competitors.

In addition to being with a new team this year, Lemke also moved from second to the third/vice skip spot. At Lemke’s level, players have had experience in each position with each position responsible for different components of an end. “They are all good shot makers,” Lemke said of her teammates.

In curling, the front players at lead and second are the workhorses throwing the rocks and sweeping. She said the viceskip’s role involves being the main conduit for communication between the skip and the lead and second. Maintaining these lines of communication through the games in the tournament will make a major impact. As could be seen in the Canadian Nationals and World competitions held earlier this spring, effective communication spelled the difference between wins and losses in many games.

As far as her outlook on the competition, Lemke said there are a lot of teams that are very good. “There isn’t anybody signed up that isn’t going to give us a good game,” she said. That said, Lemke said she feels her team is very much in the mix and is capable of coming away with a lot of wins.

“I am feeling personally good because we were able to have ice this year,” she said, noting that other teams did not have that amount of practice time this season.

Lemke said she was pleased with this year’s draw scheduled. Their first two days have competition at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. giving them time to come into each with clear minds and refreshed. On May 27 and 28 their games are also at 8 a.m. before, hopefully, heading into the playoff and finals. The finals game is scheduled for 2 p.m. on May 30.

As far as her field of competition, Lemke said that over half the teams have one or more new players on them this year. She said this is a bit of a neutralizer given the lack of playing opportunities this season.

Lemke said the Jamie Sinclair team is the one they are looking out for, but she noted that Sinclair is with newer teammates this year. “You never know what is going to happen there,” she said.

While the short-term goal going into the National Championship is to win it, Lemke said the goal is to get to the finals and come one step closer to the dream of representing the United States in the 2022 Winter Olympics. She noted that if they don’t seal a spot now, there are other events in the fall where they can earn a qualifying berth, but she would rather go into the summer knowing they had made it.