Bowdoin College’s curling team is brushing brooms and throwing stones on its way to regional and national prominence. This season the team won the Maine State Championships and came in second in its division at the regional games, losing to Harvard University.

Nationals weren’t held this year – which Bowdoin won in its division last year – because of funding issues with College Curling USA.

Captain Carl Spielvogel ’13 said his team’s “very happy with our results because we moved up from the very bottom of the bracket, in years of experience, and lost to the top [bracket].” The current team, which Spielvogel founded last year, consists of Jay Tulchin ’13, Andrew Hancock ’13 and Jimena Escudero ’13.

Spielvogel has also been instrumental in getting a college league started in Maine, according to a recent story in the Bangor Daily News. Now Bates and Unity colleges both have teams. And in early March, 10 teams from around New England and New York traveled to the Belfast Curling Club in Belfast – Maine’s only curling rink – to compete in the Maine college league’s first bonspiel, as curling tournaments are called.

Escudero, who joined the team this year, said the 23-hour bonspiel of nearly nonstop curling was the highlight of the season for her. “It was great to meet and socialize with curlers from all over the region, and as it was the first time I really saw curling in action, I feel like I learned more about the game than I had in all the weekends leading up to it.”

Spielvogel says he anticipates the team will be a strong contender next season. “Next year we’ll be training hard to qualify and make it to nationals. With ice time granted twice a week to us at Bowdoin (thank you Bowdoin!) and ice time at Belfast, we’ll be ready to hit the ice in October to practice drills.”

Click here to watch a video of Spielvogel’s take-out shot.