SWIFT CURRENT — It was only a few weeks ago that Chloe Semeniuk and her Saskatoon Nutana foursome reached the playoffs at the Curl Sask U18 provincial girls curling championship, eventually falling short in the quarter-finals.
Given another crack at a Saskatchewan title this past weekend in Swift Current, she’d make no mistake this time around.
Semeniuk and her rink of third Leah Beausoliel, second Kelsey Wall, lead Lindsay Miller and coach Nicole Beausoliel earned the fourth qualifying spot in the round robin but would go undefeated in the playoffs, defeating Regina’s Shawna Simpson 3-2 to win the Curl Sask U20 women’s provincial championship on Sunday afternoon.
Semeniuk got things off to a decent start in the preliminary round, winning her first three games, but a loss in the evening draw on Friday and back-to-back defeats to close out the round robin Saturday saw her sneak into the playoffs with a 3-3 record.
That meant Semeniuk would need to win three straight to claim the title, and she got things started in the Page Playoff 3-4 game, rolling to an 8-2 win over Estevan’s Grace Loudon.
The Page 1-2 game saw Simpson — who was the top seed in the playoffs after a 5-1 round robin — steal two in the final end for a 6-4 win over Martensville’s Kamdyn Bauldic to send her Highland foursome directly to the final.
That meant Semeniuk would face Bauldic in the semifinal, and she’d take control of things early, roaring out to a 6-0 lead through four ends and then scoring four in the seventh for a 10-3 win and her spot in the title game.
There, things couldn’t have been closer. Simpson blanked the first end and saw Semeniuk steal one in the second before taking one of her own in the third to tie things up 1-1. The teams then exchanged single points in the fifth and sixth ends, leading to Semeniuk putting the hammer to perfect use, blanking the seventh and then scoring one in the eighth for the 3-2 win and the provincial championship.
Semeniuk will now be the lone rink representing at the Canadian U20 women’s championship beginning Mar. 20 in Sudbury.
With how close things had gone through the round robin at the U20 men’s provincial curling championship, it was pretty apparent that whoever got hot in the playoffs would emerge as Saskatchewan champs.
As it turns out, Rogan Snow and his Saskatoon Sutherland foursome were that team.
Snow, third Nathan Roy, second Dominic Barlow and lead Cole Hilderman and coach Richard Roy won both their playoff games, including a 7-4 win over Swift Current’s Ethan Robinson in the championship final on Sunday afternoon.
Snow didn’t get off to a great start, losing his first two games, but after his second loss during the morning draw on Friday, it was nothing but clear sailing the rest of the way. That included three straight wins to finish in a three-way tie for second behind 4-2 Robinson.
The tiebreaker would go Snow’s way, and they’d face Robinson in the Page Playoff 1-2 game. There, a three spot in the second end and steal in the third would give Snow a 4-2 lead through four, but Robinson would battle back with single points in the sixth and seventh to tie things up coming home. Snow would score one in that end for the 5-4 win and spot in the final.
Robinson defeated Martensville’s Dylan Derksen 5-2 in the semifinal, setting up the championship rematch with Snow, and the eventual victors wasted no time getting things going. After falling behind 2-1 through two, Snow scored a pair in the third and stole single points the next two ends for a 5-2 lead at the break. Robinson got back within one with two in the sixth, but Snow blanked the next end and added two in the eighth for the 7-4 win.
Robinson, third Lewis MacDiarmid, second Joshua Kirilenko, lead Nathan Weiss and coach Craig Robinson will join Snow as the second Saskatchewan team at the Canadian U20 men’s championship, also beginning Mar. 20 in Sudbury.
