Cavelero’s Violette and team win silver at National Curling championships

The Granite Curling club’s Team Vukich, which consists of team members Jake Vukich, Evan McAuley, Luc Violette, Nicholas Connolly and Coach Tom Violette, lost 8-6 to Korey Dropkin’s High Performance team last week in the finals of the 2013 U.S. Curling Junior National Championships, giving them the silver medal in the event.

Violette is an eighth grade student at Cavelero Mid High School.

After a big comeback in the semifinals on Saturday, Vukich needed another comeback in the finals, trailing 8-4 after 8 ends.

In the 9th end, Vukich made a great split on a shot just outside the rings and rolled in for a second counter to pull within 2 at 8-6.

The end was setting up nicely for a chance to steal 2 for the tie, but Vukich’s final shot just ticked off Dropkin’s shot at the top of the four foot and rolled just short of second count, giving Dropkin the win.

It was a great showing by the team from Washington as they went 6-3 in the round robin and took the number one seed to the last shot in the finals.