TIMMINS, Ont. — A week of incredible curling and just as impressive success has come to a perfect end for Renee Wood and her Saskatoon Sutherland teammates.
Wood and her rink of third Edie Jardine, second Amelia Whiting, lead Winnie Morin, alternate Abby Hogeboom and coach Dwayne Yachiw capped an undefeated playoff run with the gold medal at the Canadian Under-18 girls curling championship in Timmins, Ont. on Saturday afternoon.
The national champions didn’t leave much to doubt, either, taking only seven ends to record an 8-3 win over Ontario’s Charlotte Wilson in the title game after rolling past Nova Scotia’s Myra McEvoy 9-6 in the semifinal Saturday morning.
Wood had advanced to the playoff round after putting together a 5-1 record in Pool C and finishing in first place, earning a direct bye to the quarter-final. There, she’d take a 5-4 extra end win over Northern Ontario’s Lily Wright to set up Saturday’s medal run.
The first order of business was the semifinal against McEvoy, and Wood didn’t leave a whole lot to chance.
A three spot in the first end, force in the second and deuce in the third had Saskatchewan leading 5-2 after three ends, and they’d add a steal of two in the fourth and another in the fifth for an 8-2 edge at the break. McEvoy wouldn’t go quietly, scoring two in the sixth and stealing another three in the seventh to make it a two-point contest coming home, but Wood would finish things off with a single point in the eighth for the win.
It was the second meeting of the two teams in the tournament after Wood defeated McEvoy 9-3 in the round robin.
The gold medal game was also a rematch from the Pool C, only the result in that preliminary round game was much different — Ontario had handed Wood what would turn into her lone loss of the event in the final game before the playoffs, taking a 5-3 win.
Saskatchewan saw to it there would be no repeat, even if things were close early. Wood picked up a deuce in the first end and gave up a pair in the second before two more in the third gave her a 4-2 lead. After holding Wilson to one in the fourth, it was clear sailing from there, with a single point in the fifth, steal of one in the sixth and two more in the seventh securing the championship for the Sutherland foursome.
Manitoba’s Caitlyn McPherson stole points in the sixth and seventh and then picked up a deuce in the eighth to take a 7-6 win over McEvoy and claim the bronze medal.
On the boys side, Quebec’s Raphael Tremblay scored a pair in the final end to take a 6-5 win over Ontario’’s Aaron Genjaga in the gold medal game. Ontario’s Tyler MacTavish defeated Quebec’s Zach Janidlo 8-3 for bronze.
You can check out Saskatchewan's entire national championship run on www.curling.ca.
