Day 1 of the 2022 U.S. Olympic Team Curling Trials got underway on Friday night in Omaha with three men's team matchups. Team Shuster took on Team Brundidge, Team Persinger faced Team Ruohonen and Team Dunnam went up against Team Dopkin.
Team Shuster vs. Team Brundidge headlined the action as the 2018 Olympic champion John Shuster took the first step on the road to defending his team's historic gold medal.
The Shuster squad -- which also includes John Landsteiner, Matt Hamilton and Christopher Plys -- got out to an early 3-0 lead in the first end and never looked back. Team Brundidge, led by Jed Brundidge, didn't put up a single point against Team Shuster. Shuster walked away with a 9-0 win in just six ends after Team Brundidge conceded.
SEE MORE: How to watch the U.S. Olympic Team Curling Trials
The other Day 1 matchups, however, were nail-biters.
Team Persinger vs. Team Ruohonen was tied 7-7 going into the eighth end. But Persinger pulled ahead with two points in the eighth and added another two in the tenth to seal an 11-7 victory.
Team Dunnam led Team Dropkin 6-5 going into the eighth end. Dunnam opened up its lead to 7-5 in the eighth then extended it to 9-5 in the ninth for the win.
Coverage of U.S. Olympic Team Curling Trials continues Saturday on NBCOlympics.com and in the NBC Sports app with Team Strouse vs. Peterson (10 a.m. ET) and Team Christensen vs. Team Sinclair (8 p.m. ET) on the women's side, and Team Ruohonen vs. Team Dropkin (3 p.m. ET) on the men's.
View the full Trials schedule here.
