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Monthly Archives: January 2025
DREGER RETIRES AFTER 40 YEARS OF BROADCAST SERVICE TO SPORTS, COMMUNITY
Sometime about 10 o’clock this morning (Tuesday, January 7, 2025), Clayton Dreger will sign off for the last time as Sports Director at Goldenwest Radio.
For exactly forty years, Clayton has been telling the local sports story for the listeners on the Goldenwest Manitoba network from his studio in the Altona radio station….and exactly 40 years, means EXACTLY 40 years. Dreger has chosen to end his broadcast career 40 years TO THE DAY from when he started his career at the same radio station.
He has stayed at Goldenwest for his entire career and became known (and respected) for putting local sports above the higher profile, professional sports. His listeners always knew they could count on him to tell the story of the local high school teams, the local community hockey-baseball-curling teams.
He might tell you what happened with the Jets or the Bombers but only if he didn’t run out of time talking about local sports.
And curling got more than its share of attention. Local bonspiel results, local super-league results, provincial championships as far afield as Thompson but always first telling the story of how the local teams were doing. Occasionally the local curlers would reach the pinnacle and he had the opportunity to lead his sportscasts with those local success stories: Altona’s Harold Sawatzky and his team making their phenomenal run to the Manitoba Men’s curling championship final before losing to Vic Peters (another popular Goldenwest market area name), Altona’s Mackenzie Zacharias skipping her team to Manitoba, Canadian and World junior titles, and just this week Morden’s Nash Sugden winning the U-18 championship.
What could be more fitting in the retirement story of a dedicated community sports broadcaster than for his last curling championship interview to be conducted in a community curling club in the heart of his broadcast territory and for his last interview with a Manitoba champion to be with a youth curler from that very same region?
Best wishes to Clayton Dreger in a well-earned retirement – and THANK YOU from the Manitoba curling community!
PETERSON, CALVERT WIN 2024-25 MCT CHAMPIONSHIPS
Twenty-four teams, 12 Men & 12 Women, assembled at Fort Rouge CC this weekend to contest the Manitoba Curling Tour Championship.
Beth Peterson took on Sarah-Jane Sass in the Sunday afternoon Women’s final. Peterson (Kelsey Roque, Katherine Doerksen, Melissa Kurz) controlled the game but Sass (Katie Lukowich, Mackenzie Arbuckle, Julian Milan) stole on the sixth to make it interesting, down 6-4 with 2 to play. The game ended after seven ends when Peterson put a three on the board for a 9-4 final score.
To reach the final, Peterson beat Lisa McLeod 7-0 in the semifinal while Sass needed an extra end to oust Holly Duncan (Woodstock, ON)
Braden Calvert (Corey Chambers, Kyle Kurz, Robbie Gordon-sparing for Brendan Bilawka) won the Sunday afternoon Manitoba Curling Tour Championship Men’s final with a last rock draw to the button to score a pair for a 7-6 win over the Jordan Peters team (skipped by Adam Flatt with Sean Flatt, Emerson Klimpke, and Ryan Wiebe subbing for Peters).
Calvert led 3-0 after 1 end and 5-1 after 3 but trailed 6-5 coming home after a deuce, a steal of two and a steal of 1 by the Flatt-skipped team. On the final end, Flatt had second shot in the four foot circle forcing the need for Calvert to be perfect on his last.
In the semifinals, Team Flatt/Peters defeated Brett Walter 5-4 with a steal coming home while Calvert beat Sean Grassie, tied 5-5 coming home.
All four semi finalist teams will be playing in the Viterra Championship in Portage in early February.
MORDEN, GIMLI TEAMS WIN ASHAM U-18 TITLES
Teams from Morden and Gimli have won the CurlManitoba Asham U-18 Championships in Morden.
The two rural Manitoba teams and a pair from the Winnipeg capital region will represent Manitoba at the national U-18 championship when it takes place in Saskatoon in late February.
Each of the CurlManitoba’s Asham U-18 final games Sunday, at the Morden Curling Club, featured a rural team against a Winnipeg area team – showing that, supported by CurlManitoba, local club efforts to grow youth curling across the province are working.
The winners of the two games, the Nash Sugden (Morden) and Caitlyn McPherson (Gimli) teams, are the Manitoba champions for 2024-25. However, thanks to the performance of Manitoba’s champions at last year’s nationals, the finalist teams also earned a national entry.
In the Asham U-18 Men’s, Morden’s Nash Sugden team (Tyler Fehr, Tanner Treichel, Ryan Thiessen, Coach Gord Titchkosky) posted a 5-4 win over Heather’s Logan Zacharias team (Rylan Graham, Carter Malmquist, Hudson Strand, Coach Sheldon Zacharias).
Tied 3-3 after 6 ends, Sugden had a shot at a game winning four on the seventh. He rubbed a guard to give up a steal to trail by one coming home – but didn’t have to throw his final stone as Zacharias slid deep in the 12 foot circle with his final stone, facing three.
Sugden and Zacharias both topped their respective pools in the ten-team championship with perfect 4W-0L records. Sugden beat Zacharias to advance to the final while Zacharias won the semifinal 6-3 over Liam Burton-Heather (Tiernan Bertrand-Meadows, Myles Lagadi, Callum Smith, Coach Shelley Bertrand-Meadows). The Burton team reached the semifinal with a first round playoff 5-4 win over St. Vital’s Kieran Callewaert entry (skipped by Luc Cormier, Evan Traczuk, Quinn Lagace, Coach Blaine Malo).
In the Asham U-18 Women’s Gimli’s McPherson team (Julie Magnusson, Robyn Buchel, Jorja Buhr, Coach Shawn Magnusson) defeated West St. Paul’s Karys Buchalter (Ainslee Card, Amy Buchalter, Eva Le Heiget, Coach Kelsey Meger) 9-5 to win the championship.
Tied 2-2 after four ends, McPherson gave up a three to Buchalter on the fifth end. The Gimli team bounced back to score a three of their own on the sixth and steal two on the seventh to lead by two coming home. They controlled the last end, got a stone buried early and scored two more for the 9-5 final score.
Buchalter and McPherson both finished the round robin with 6W-1L records with Buchalter being awarded the first place bye to the final thanks to a round robin win over McPherson.
McPherson needed an extra end to win the semifinal over Carman’s Kiera Krahn (Bethany Allan, Hannah Smith, Ella Robins, Coach Cal Edie). Krahn finished third in the eight team round robin with a 5W-2L record.
The 2025 Provincial Coaching Award, sponsored by Asham, goes to the coach who best exemplifies attributes of a quality coach as voted on by their peers. The men’s coaching award winner was Gord Titchkosky (Team Sugden) and women’s coaching award winner was Cory Barkley (Team Brown).
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OF NOTE: Since the CurlManitoba U-18 Women’s event began in 2013, it has been dominated by rural teams. The 2013 event was won by Pembina’s Hannah Brown. That is the only win by a Winnipeg club team. Since then, the rural winners have been from:
4-Altona: Mackenzie Zacharias (2015, 2016, 2017) Dayna Wahl (2023)
2-Dauphin: Emma Jensen (2018, 2019)
1-Carman: Shaela Hayward (2024)
1-East St. Paul: Megan Walter (2020)
1-Neepawa: Zoey Terrick (2022)
1-Winkler: Brooke Friesen (2014)
** There was no event in 2021 due to Covid
The U-18 Men’s has seen a much evener balance between rural and Winnipeg winners.
2-St. Vital: Jordon McDonald (2019, 2020)
1-Altona: Rylan Campbell (2024)
1-Carberry: Braden Calvert (2013)
1-Der Lodge: Jordon McDonald (2022)
1-Elmwood: Brett Walter (2018)
1-Fort Rouge: Brett Walter (2016)
1- Heather: Hayden Forrester (2015)
1-Morris: Brett Walter (2017)
1-Starbuck: Brandon Radford (2014)
1-Virden: Jace Freeman (2023)
** There was no event in 2021 due to Covid
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