Kubbing to Kick Cancer 2019 Recap

KASSON, Minn. — For the seventh time, kubbers from all over the Midwest united for Kubbing to Kick Cancer. The annual tournament is notorious for extreme weather, but this year was kind of an anomaly. It was hot, but not the hottest, and it was windy, but not the windiest. All-in-all, it was relatively mild weather for a Kasson tournament and the only real struggle for players turned out to be the bouncy-as-a-trampoline grass.

The morning started with the 30 teams competing in five rounds of the Klassic system. Then, after a lunch break featuring the Triple T BBQ Team, the final two rounds of qualification were tackled.

Brackets were set with the top 16 to the championship, and the remaining to the bronze bracket. After round one, losing championship teams would enter the silver bracket. The championship bracket battled it out in best-of-three matches while the other two brackets were simple one-and-done matches.

In the semi-finals, Chaska Blue (Jason “J.P.” Larson, Tyler Patterson) met with the Kubbcettes (Andy Lancette, Ben Lancette, Debbie Lancette). Their match went to three games with both teams putting in a good performance. The other semi-final hadn’t yet started, as the Beauty School Dropouts (Steve Dolan, Tim Motzko, Andrew Thibodeau) and Kubbin for a Brewsin were still in a back-and-forth battle in the quarter-finals. Eventually Beauty School Dropouts prevailed in that match, and would move on to face Las Pequeñas Bailarinas (Gregg Jochimsen, Grant Scott). In this semi-final, Las Pequeñas Bailarinas won it in two games.

The finals were set, but Chaska Blue had a problem. Larson had a prior commitment back in the Twin Cities which meant he had to leave before the finals match was to begin. Fellow Chaska Kubb Club member, Paul Knutson was subbed in Larson’s place. Chaska Blue came out hot on game one, and Las Pequeñas Bailarinas had an unusually shaky few turns. Chaska was victorious and looked to ride their momentum into the second game, but Las Pequeñas Bailarinas returned to their national-title form, finding that extra gear and walking away with a quick game two victory. It was now down to game three, and both teams wanted it. Chaska Blue opened without a hit, which left Las Pequeñas Bailarinas with four batons to throw at the baseline, of which they downed three kubbs. Chaska used half of their batons clearing the field, but still managed to knock off two of their baseline kubbs. Now with five kubbs in play, Jochimsen drilled a tidy pile which he took down in just two batons, then hit an 8 meter. Scott stepped up to the line, finished off the remaining baseline kubb and then killed the king with a baton to spare. Las Pequeñas Bailarinas came back from a game one loss to take the match and the title of 2019 Kubbing to Kick Cancer champions!