(CurlManitoba Release) DAY 5 SUMMARY: CURLMANITOBA RME WOMEN OF THE RINGS PRESENTED BY CASE IH: It took the last rock in the tenth to determine the outcome as Kate Cameron and her Heather team (Taylor McDonald, Allison Flaxey, Mackenzie Elias, Brianna Cullen) won the 2025 RME Women of the Rings Championship presented by Case IH.

Tied 6-6 coming home, Beth Peterson’s Assiniboine Memorial team (Kelsey Calvert, Meghan Walter, Melissa Kurz, Katherine Remillard) forced Cameron to hit with her final stone but she didn’t have to stick her shooter. Cameron made the hit for a 7-6 win.

It is a second Manitoba women’s title for Kate Cameron who was at third for Michelle Englot in 2017. Cameron and Taylor McDonald won Alberta women’s titles in 2020, 2021, and 2022 with Laura Walker. Allison Flaxey, who won the Manitoba and Canadian Mixed in 2009 with Sean Grassie, won the Ontario women’s title in 2014. It is a first women’s championship win for Mackenzie Elias and Brianna Cullen. (Flaxey was a substitution in the line-up as Cullen was away at the start of the week, competing in the World University Championship where her U of Alberta team, skipped by Sera Grey-Withers won the bronze medal.)

The Cameron team will wear the Manitoba colours at the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts February 14-23, in Thunder Bay.

To reach the Sunday afternoon final, Peterson had defeated 3-time former champion Darcy Robertson and her Assiniboine Memorial team (Rhonda Varnes, Brooklyn Meiklejohn, Kylie Lippens, Erika Campbell) in the Sunday morning semifinal.

The two finalists were both a single loss away from not playing Sunday.

Cameron finished the preliminary round of play with a 3W-2L record, to be ranked third in the Asham Pool and earn the last spot from that group in the championship round. The Heather team won all three of their championship round games for a 6W-2L record and the playoff round bye to the final game.

The Peterson team had finished the preliminary round with a 4W-1L record to advance to the championship round as the second ranked team in the Asham Ultra Force but won only one of the championship round games to finish at 5W-3L. That put her in a tiebreaker game Saturday evening needing a win over Hailey McFarlane (Neepawa) to play in the Sunday playoffs.