Two new territorial champions were crowned on the curling ice in Yellowknife earlier this month, and while they both hailed from the capital, the non-Yellowknife teams came away with more experience.
The NWT U20 Women’s Championship saw Inuvik’s Reese Wainman and her rink of Alex Testart, Brooke Smith and Whitney Kasook take on Cassie Rogers and her rink in a best-of-five series to determine the winner. The first team to triumph three times would be declared the winner and it would be Rogers who would win three straight, the final win coming on Feb. 12 by a score of 11-1.
Wainman said winning the U20 title wasn’t the goal as her foursome is focused on the NWT U18 Championships and the Canada Winter Games trials later this month in Yellowknife.
“We wanted to play and get better for other competitions we’re planning on playing and, hopefully, winning,” she said.
The opening contest on Feb. 11 was a tight affair with Rogers coming out on top, 7-5. Wainman held a 4-3 lead before Rogers scored three in the sixth with the hammer and then stole another in the seventh to make it 7-4. Wainman could only score a single in the eighth in reply.
Game two saw the two sides trade deuces in the opening two ends before Rogers stole singles in the third and fourth ends to take a 4-2 lead. Wainman got a single back in the fifth but Rogers would score three with the hammer in the sixth to go up 7-3. Wainman would post a single in the seventh before Rogers put the game away by scoring five in the eighth to win, 12-4.
The third — and what proved to be final — contest had Rogers starting with the hammer and laying down a four-spot to open things up. Wainman responded with a single in the second but from that point, it was all Rogers as she scored a single in the third and stole in each end after that with Wainman shaking hands after the sixth.
Rogers and her crew will now represent the NWT at the Canadian U21 Curling Championships in Stratford, Ont., next month.
The other big event was the NWT Men’s Curling Championship with a trip to the Tim Hortons Brier in Lethbridge, Alta., in roughly two weeks time. The Yellowknife contingents were the rinks skipped by Jamie Koe and Greg Skauge, the defending champion, while flying the flag for the out-of-town teams were Inuvik’s Mason MacNeil and his rink of Kaleb Picek, John Voudrach and Kolsen Church — the youngest team in the event — and Hay River’s D’arcy Delorey with his rink of Glenn Smith, Pat Cove and Bruce Powder.
The competitors played a double round-robin with all four teams entering the Page playoff format. Koe and Skauge finished first and second, respectively, and played one quarter-final with the winner going right to the final, which Koe claimed. Skauge went to the semifinal to await the winner of Delorey and MacNeil, which went Delorey’s way, and Skauge would beat Delorey to get back to the final.
Koe then beat Skauge in the final, 7-3, to regain the men’s territorial title and punch his rink’s ticket to Lethbridge.
Hilary Charlie, who coached the young men’s outfit from Inuvik, said it was never about winning for her boys but more about learning and having fun playing against more experienced teams.
“They came away with a much better understanding of the game and I’m proud of the way they played,” she said. “At the start, the scores were a bit lopsided but the margins got smaller. They weren’t looking at the scores — they were focusing on their shots.”
They didn’t go quietly against Delorey in their quarter-final, though, and even held a 5-4 lead at the midway point.
“A couple of ends just got away from us,” said Charlie. “They had such a big improvement. They were making shots — big shots — and I’m really proud of them for taking it on. They went up against guys who have lots of experience,” she said.
The young men will be returning to Yellowknife for both the NWT U18 Championships and Canada Winter Games trials but they will also be the representatives for the NWT in Stratford when that time comes.