Alumni Carving an exciting pathway in Curling

In early August, former Trinity Catholic College student Ellie McKenzie competed in the NZ Junior Mixed Doubles Curling tournament, held in Dunedin, and won Gold!! This means that Ellie, and her curling partner Darcy Nevill, are off to represent New Zealand in the World Junior Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Edmonton, Canada, in May 2025.

Ellie has been curling since she was in Year 10, and along the way won South Island and National Secondary Schools titles with her Trinity Catholic College team.  In August 2023, she was selected as part of the NZ Curling Youth Development Squad and had the opportunity to travel to Norway to attend a week-long curling training camp with squads from around the world.

In January this year, Ellie was selected to represent New Zealand in the mixed fours curling team participating in the Winter Youth Olympic Games, held in Gangwon, South Korea.  This was an absolutely amazing experience for Ellie, her teammates and all of their families. 

For those who might not be familiar with this sport, curling is based on a very simple idea – slide your stones along the ice and get them closer to the target than your opponent's – the problem being that your opposition will do everything tactically to stop you from achieving this goal. So the game contains elements of great skill, strategy, finesse, exertion and endeavour.

The game is more than 500 years old, and it is often referred to as "bowls on ice" because the format scoring is similar, but the tactics involved also make "chess on ice" a good description. It is an easy sport to learn – you can play a game within an hour of first getting on the ice – but mastering it will take longer!

In 2023, Ellie was part of the Trinity curling team that won the NZ Secondary Schools Curling Championship and she also represented NZ at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in South Korea earlier this year.

At the end of this month, Ellie will learn whether she has been selected as part of the NZ Junior Women’s Fours team who will compete in the World Junior B Championships in Lohja, Finland in December.  Fingers crossed!

Congratulations Ellie - What a way to see the world! The Trinity Catholic College Community is extremely proud of your achievements.