FAIRBANKS — Hannah Elko and John Landsteiner had to work extra at the 2011 USA Curling Junior National Championships on Thursday night at the Fairbanks Curling Club.

The work was well worth it, as the two rinks from Wisconsin won tiebreaker games to advance to the page round of the weeklong tournament to determine who will represent the United States at the Junior World Championships next month in Perth, Scotland.

The Elko rink of Pardeeville, Wis., downed the Cory Christensen rink of Duluth, Minn., 11-4, to join three other teams in the women’s medal rounds.

Landsteiner, of Trempealeau, Wis., cruised past the Tom Gabower rink of Janesville, Wis., 9-3, to join the top three rinks from the men’s round-robin competition in the medals round.

Curling uses a different formula than many other sports to determine who is in the championship match.

In today’s page round, the No. 1 team plays the No. 2 team, with the winner advancing to the championship at noon Saturday. The loser moves into the semifinals, where it will play the winner of the match between the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds from the round-robin event. The winner of that match will also head to the championship round.

In the women’s page round No. 1 Miranda Solem rink of Grand Rapids, Minn., battles the No. 2 Mackenzie Lank rink of Devils Lake, Minn., while the No. 3 Becca Hamilton rink of McFarland, Wis., takes on the No. 4 Elko rink.

“We just need to have consistent shots,” Julia Lilla, the Solem rink’s second, said. “Consistency will be very important.”

In the men’s page round, No. 1 Alex Leichter rink of Wayland, Mass, will play No. 2 Aaron Wald rink of Chisholm, Minn., while the No. 3 Stephen Dropkin rink of Southborough, Mass., goes up against the No. 4 Landsteiner rink.

The page round is at

2 p.m. today and the semifinals are at 7 p.m. The championship games are at noon Saturday.

Solem finished the women’s round-robin portion of the tournament with a 8-1 mark, while Lank and Hamilton were both 7-2. Elko and Christensen were 5-4.

“It was kind of a must-win,” Lilla said of the Minnesota team’s game against the Hamilton rink. “We scored three in the first end, and then it went one, one, one, back and forth until we got two in the ninth.”

“We need to play hard like we did in this last game,” Solem said of her team’s game plan for the championship match. “We need to remember to keep the pressure on. Our goal now is to make the championship game, and then our goal will be to win it all.”

Elko and Christensen had to win their games in the final round to advance to the tiebreaker. Elko eliminated the Vicky Persinger rink of Fairbanks by scoring three in the 10th end to claim a 13-11 win. Christensen beat the Hannah Ely rink of Penfield, N.Y., 8-5, to reach the tiebreaker game.

Leichter was the men’s round-robin winner at 7-2. The next four teams — Wald, Dropkin, Landsteiner and Gabower — all finished at 6-3. USA Curling’s tiebreaker system put Wald in second and Dropkin in third, while Landsteiner and Gabower were relagated to the tiebreaker game to determine which rink got the fourth spot.

The Matt Birklid rink of Fairbanks finished in seventh place with a 4-5 record, and the Persinger rink finished tied for sixth with the same record.

Contact the News-Miner sports department at 459-7581.