TIMMINS, Ont. — A solid week of work saw all three teams from Saskatchewan qualify for the playoff round on Thursday at the Canadian Under-18 Curling Championship currently underway in Timmins, Ont.
And two of those teams — Esterhazy’s Brandon Weiss in the boys draw and Saskatoon’s Renee Wood on the girls side — still have more to do after reaching the quarter-finals thanks to their strong showing in the preliminary round.
Weiss and his rink of third Josh Lussier, second Tyler Derksen and lead Carter Nelson left nothing to doubt in their final round robin game during the morning draw on Thursday, rolling to an 11-4 win over Quebec’s Raphael Tremblay to finish with a 4-2 record and in third place in Pool C.
The tournament format saw the winners from each of the three pools receive a bye to the quarter-finals, with the team with the best record out of the remaining rinks landing the fourth spot. That turned out to be Weiss, thanks to his 35.78 Last Stone Draw distance ranking him tops among teams with a 4-2 record.
That all came about because of Weiss’ showing against Quebec, which was a back-and-forth battle in the early going. Weiss got off to a great start, scoring four in the first end, but Tremblay responded with three of his own the next frame to get right back into things. It was all Saskatchewan from there, though, as Weiss scored a deuce in the third and tacked on single points the next two ends to lead 8-3 at the break. Tremblay got one back in the sixth, but a Weiss three-spot in the seventh would see the teams shake hands.
Weiss will now face Ontario’s Aaron Genjaga in their quarter-final game at 7:30 a.m. on Friday.
The news wasn’t as good for Saskatoon’s Quinn Snow and his Nutana foursome of third David Denis, second Liam Regush and lead Tristan Heal, as they lost their final round robin contest 8-2 to Prince Edward Island’s Aaron Haight to finish with a 3-3 record and fourth in Pool B.
That was good enough to advance to the playoffs, but Snow’s tournament would come to an end there with a 6-4 loss to Northern Ontario’s Jacob Curtis.
Wood and her Sutherland foursome of third Edie Jardine, second Amelia Whiting, lead Winnie Morin and alternate Abby Hogeboom were the class of Pool C all week, with their 5-1 record securing first place and seeing Saskatchewan advance directly to the quarter-finals.
As a result, they ended up with an off day on Thursday and will now face Northern Ontario’s Lily Wright at 1:30 p.m. on Friday with a spot in the semifinals on the line.
The boys semifinals will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, followed by the medal games at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. The girls semifinals are set for 8:30 a.m. Saturday and they will also take the ice for the medal games at 1:30 Saturday.
Be sure to keep an eye on www.curling.ca for all the up-to-the-minute scores.
