(CurlManitoba Release) Twenty-one of Manitoba’s best aspiring young curling teams will be in Selkirk January 4-7, 2024 as the first CurlManitoba championship of the new year gets underway. Six games in the 12-team U-18 Women’s championship kick-off the event at 8:30AM Thursday followed by four games in the nine-team U-18 Men’s at noon.

Altona’s Dayna Wahl, defending champion and 2023 Canada Games representative, will return to try to make it three Manitoba wins in two curling seasons. Piper Stoesz and Gillian Hildebrand return as well with Lauren Weselak and Coach Chris Hamblin joining the line-up. A year ago, the Altona team had a 3W-1L round robin record and won a pair of playoff games.

The challengers include five other returning teams. These include the intact Karys Buchalter (West St. Paul) team which made the playoffs a year ago, and the intact Shaela Hayward (Carman) team which had a 3W-1L round robin record but missed the playoffs. Three of four players return from last year’s finalist Beaudry team, now skipped by Cassidy Dundas (Heather), Bethany Allan’s Heather team, and Liv Leadbeater’s Swan River team.

The field is rounded out by teams from East St. Paul (Robyn Buchel), Gladstone (Jorja Buhr), Killarney (Gina Giasson), Pembina (Hailey Hall & Ainslee Card), and St. Vital (Hannah Patton).

There is one invitation available through the championship to represent Manitoba at the national championship in early February in Ottawa.

Although all three of last year’s U-18 Men’s playoff teams will be represented, there is no defending champion in this year’s Asham U-18 Men’s Championship, making it a wide-open competition to determine a new champion.

Rylan Graham (from Jace Freeman’s 2023 champion team) and Nick Senff (from Ronan Peterson’s 2023 finalist team) now form the front end for Rylan Campbell’s Altona team. Campbell and third Logan Zacharias played in last year’s event with Luke Robins.

Carter Malmquist, who played on the 3^rd place Zach Norris team a year ago, skips his own Stonewall team this year.

Only one team returns intact from last year’s event. Nash Sugden and his Morden team will be looking to improve on their 3W-3L record from a year ago as they pursue this year’s title.

Three of the four members of Portage’s Colton Olafson team also return. They also posted a 3W-3L record last year.

Teams from AMCC (Kieran Callewaert), East St. Paul (Tyler Graham), Fort Garry (Evan Boutet), Lorette (Sebastien Sarrasin), and the host Selkirk Curling Club (Brady Szydlik) will challenge for one of two opportunities to represent Manitoba at the nationals.

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All 14 provinces and territories automatically have an entry into the U-18 Nationals Men and Women Championships. The second U-18 Men’s spot for 2024 was earned by a strong performance over the past two championships by the Manitoba teams. On an accumulated results basis over the two years, the top SIX provinces earn the second entry to the nationals. In all, there are 21 spots available (14 provinces/territories, an added spot for the host province, and the six past-performance earned berths).