U.S. Olympic curling trials preview

When: Saturday through Nov. 18

Where: Baxter Arena, Omaha

The format: Three women's teams and five men's teams will compete in round-robin tournaments Saturday through Wednesday, with the top two teams in each gender advancing to the playoffs. The best-of-three playoffs begin Thursday. The winning men's and women's teams will represent the U.S. at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February.

Playoff schedule: Thursday, 1:30 p.m. (women) and 6 p.m. (men); Friday, 1 p.m. (women) and 6:30 p.m. (men); Saturday, if necessary, 10 a.m. (women) and 6:30 p.m. (men)

TV: NBCSN will televise the men's playoff games live. Women's playoff games will be shown on tape delay at 9 p.m. Thursday and 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Round-robin play and tiebreaker games will be streamed live on the NBC Sports app.

Minnesotans in the field: Each of the men's and women's teams has at least one member born in Minnesota or currently residing here. Several teams train at curling clubs in the Twin Cities or Duluth.

For full draw schedule, live scoring, standings and more: usacurl.org

Todd Birr (Blaine), John Benton (Blaine), Hunter Clawson (Huntsville, Md.), Tom O'Connor (Brooklyn Center)

World Curling Tour ranking: 51st

Birr's team was included in the field after successfully challenging USA Curling over its omission. Birr skipped a team to the U.S. championship and a world bronze medal in 2007, and Benton was a member of the 2010 Olympic team.

Team Brown

Craig Brown (Madison, Wis.), Jason Smith (St. Paul), Kroy Nernberger (Medford, Wis.), Sean Beighton (Seattle), Quinn Evenson (Duluth)

Brown, a two-time national champion, was the alternate for John Shuster's 2014 Olympic team, and Smith played with Shuster at the 2010 Winter Games.

Team Clark

Brady Clark (Lynnwood, Wash.), Greg Persinger (Fairbanks, Alaska), Colin Hufman (St. Paul), Philip Tilker (Seattle)

World Curling Tour ranking: 25th

A multiple national champ in several curling disciplines, Clark will participate in his fourth Olympic trials with a team that has advanced to at least the quarterfinals in all four of its world tour events this fall.

Heath McCormick (Sarnia, Ontario), Chris Plys (Duluth), Korey Dropkin (Duluth), Tom Howell (Milwaukee), Rich Ruohonen (Brooklyn Park)

World Curling Tour ranking: 19th

One of the youngest teams in the men's field, the McCormick rink includes a 2010 Olympic alternate (Plys) and three world junior medalists (Plys, Dropkin, Howell).

Team Shuster

John Shuster (Superior, Wis.), Tyler George (Duluth), Matt Hamilton (McFarland, Wis.), John Landsteiner (Duluth), Joe Polo (Duluth)

Shuster and Polo were part of the U.S. men's team that won an Olympic bronze medal in 2006. Since then, Shuster has skipped the U.S. team at the past two Olympics and won a world bronze medal in 2016 with George, Hamilton and Landsteiner.

Team Christensen

Cory Christensen (Duluth), Sarah Anderson (Minneapolis), Taylor Anderson (Minneapolis), Jenna Martin (Wauwatosa, Wis.)

World Curling Tour ranking: 31st

The youngest skip in the field, Christensen led a team that also included the Anderson twins to a silver medal at the world junior championships in 2016.

Nina Roth (McFarland, Wis.), Tabitha Peterson (Eagan), Aileen Geving (Duluth), Becca Hamilton (McFarland, Wis.)

World Curling Tour ranking: 12th

Roth is a two-time U.S. champion whose team has had an outstanding season this fall, including an 8-1 record and a championship at the World Curling Tour's Canad Inns Classic.

Team Sinclair

Jamie Sinclair (Blaine), Alex Carlson (St. Paul), Vicky Persinger (St. Paul), Monica Walker (St. Paul)

Sinclair, Persinger and Walker are not Minnesota natives, but they all moved to the state to train as part of USA Curling's high performance program — a move that paid off when they won the 2017 U.S. championship.