The final day of play saw medals presented in four competitions at the Manitoba 55+ Games Curling as the Curling events came to a conclusion at the Brandon Curling Club. The events were conducted under the auspices of Active Aging in Manitoba.

In the 4-person team competitions, Patti Ulrich and Brenda Michel earned their second gold medals. Curling with Paul Scinocca and Paul Armstrong, the Winnipeg team won the Mixed event gold medals Thursday. Wednesday they had won the Women 55+ competition with Tammy Selman and Jill Proctor.

The Scinocca foursome had won the first game of the best-of-three series on Wednesday but lost the morning game to Jim Dowsett and his Prairie Mountain team (Donna Dowsett, Bill Scott, Cindy Scott), the silver medalists. They rebounded to win the third game of the series on Thursday afternoon.

The Women 65+ event also wrapped up Thursday. Bev Atkins and her Southern region team (Deb McCreanor, Lynn Sandercock, Anne Mushumanski) came through the “B” side of the playoff to win a pair over Joyce McDougall’s Prairie Mountain team and capture the gold medal. McDougall and her team (Audrey Fleming, Arlene McGregor, Mavis Brown) earned the Silver medal. The Bronze medal had been presented to the Brenda Linski team on Wednesday.

The medalists in the U70 7-team 2-person stick division came from three different regions. Ralph Nespor and Rob Lacombe (Interlake) captured the Gold medal with a final game victory over Fred & Britta Spiring (Winnipeg). The Bronze medal was won by Ron Shoemaker and Dave Drummond (Prairie Mountain). They bested Ross and Darren MacMillan in the bronze medal game.

In the 9-team 70+ 2-person stick curling competition, 2022 Canadian champions Norm Magnusson and Resby Coutts (Winnipeg) won the gold medal, completing the round robin and playoffs with a 5W-1L record. They defeated Lloyd McCabe and Keith Privat (Prairie Mountain) in the final game. The Bronze medal game was also a Winnipeg- Prairie Mountain match with Harold Hamilton and Willie Friesen(Winnipeg) defeating Jake Dyck and Murray Hedley.

Also presented Wednesday, Prairie Mountain region teams won both of the Men 65+ and Men 75+ competitions. Brian Lowdon with Cliff Gouldie, Bob Fraser, and Glen Kyle won the Men 65+ gold medals. Ric Morrison with his team of Ron Cruickshank, Reg Sheardown and Alvin Taft won the Men 75+ gold medals.

The Manitoba 55+ Games will take place in Brandon, June 18-20, 2024. The curling events underway this week at the Brandon Curling Club are a “satellite” event of that larger summer celebration of sport for active Manitoba seniors.

For information about the over-20 competitions and activities in the summer event, go to activeaginmb.ca

The first three sets of medals were presented Wednesday at the Manitoba 55+ Games Curling underway at the Brandon Curling Club, under the auspices of Active Aging in Manitoba.

The shot of the day was made by Patti Ulrich who, with her Winnipeg team (Tammy Selman, Brenda Michel, Jill Proctor), won the gold medals in the Women 55+ age group division. With her final stone on an extra end, Ulrich hit a stone on the teeline in the 12’ circle and rolled to contact the shot Leanne Haight stone in the four foot. The shot gave the Ulrich foursome the gold medals, undefeated. The Prairie Mountain region team (Leanne Haight, Cheryl Bridges, Judy Robertson, Sherry Mullin) earned the silver medals. Earlier in the day, Norma Purdy and another Winnipeg team (Lori Pelissier, Maria Boyd, Laurie Deprez) received the bronze medals.

In the Women 65+ division, Joyce McDougall’s Prairie Mountain team lost Wednesday afternoon to Bev Atkins and her Southern region team. The win for Atkins forced a sudden-death gold medal game to be played at 9AM Thursday. Earlier Wednesday, Brenda Linski and her Prairie Mountain team (Diane Gouldie, Wenda Turner, Carol Toms) received the bronze medals.

The two men’s age groups (65+ and 75+) each had a pair of entries in a best-of-three playoff format. Both ended in two games. The Men’s 65+ gold medals were won by a team skipped by Brian Lowdon (Prairie Mountain) with Cliff Gouldie, Bob Fraser, and Glen Kyle. The silver medals went to Larry Schroeder, Bill Mamchuk, Dan Beaudoin, Fred Spiring and Stu Marshall (Winnipeg).

The Men 75+ division gold medals were won by Ric Morrison’s Prairie Mountain team (Ron Cruickshank, Reg Sheardown and Alvin Taft) with the silver medals going to Gil Van Daele (Prairie Mountain) – Brian Manns, Rae Hainstock, Ray Smart.

The two-team Mixed competition will wrap up Thursday. Paul Scinocca’s Winnipeg team won the first of a best-of-three over Jim Dowsett and his Prairie Mountain team.

The two 2-person stick divisions will also wrap up Thursday with semi-finals to be played at 9AM, followed by gold and bronze medal games. In the U70 competition, the semi-finalists include Nespor-Lacombe and MacMillan-MacMillan (Interlake), Spiring-Spiring (Winnipeg), and Shoemaker-Drummond (Prairie Mountain), In the 70+ event, the semi-finalists include Hamilton-Friesen and Magnusson-Coutts (Winnipeg), and McCabe-Privat and Dyck-Hedley (Prairie Mountain).

A pair of wins Tuesday by four different teams has them leading their respective divisions of the Manitoba 55+ Games Curling underway at the Brandon Curling Club, under the auspices of Active Aging in Manitoba.

Manitoba Curling Hall of Famer Joyce McDougall and her Prairie Mountain Region team leads the way in the Women’s 65+ Division. Team McDougall posted wins over Bev Atkins and a South Region team and Brenda Linski, also a Prairie Mountain team.

In the Women’s 55+ event, Patti Ulrich and her Winnipeg team have also won a pair of games. The Ulrich wins came over Leanne Haight (Prairie Mountain) and Norma Purdy (Winnipeg).

Both McDougall and Ulrich are a win away from being the gold medalists in their respective divisions.

In the men’s competitions, Prairie Mountain teams skipped by Brian Lowdon (Men 65+) and Ric Morrison (Men 75+) won their opening games on the first day of the event.

The Manitoba 55+ Games Curling also includes 2-person stick curling in an open format (men & women competing against each other). A pair of teams won two games on opening day to lead the gold medal chase. In the Under 70 division, recently crowned Manitoba Women’s champions Schick & Kachkowski (Winnipeg) lead the way with two wins on the first day. The 70+ division is led by Swan River curlers Kalynuk & Kalynuk, also part of the Prairie Mountain regional team.

The Manitoba 55+ Games will take place in Brandon, June 18-20, 2024. The curling events underway this week at the Brandon Curling Club are a “satellite” event of that larger summer celebration of sport for active Manitoba seniors.

(CurlManitoba Release) CurlManitoba crowned its second three-time Junior Men’s champion in seven years and a rare twice-in-a-season Junior Women’s champion when the Manitoba Juniors wrapped up in Carman Sunday.

Jordon McDonald and his Assiniboine Memorial team (Dallas Burgess, Elias Huminicki, Cameron Olafson, Coach William Lyburn) scored three coming home to defeat Jace Freeman and his Virden team (Ryan Ostrowsky, Nick Senff, Luke Robins, Coach Graham Freeman) in the final game. For the win, McDonald made a delicate shot past a centre line guard to remove the Freeman shot stone in the top of the 12-foot circle.

The teams had split two previous meetings during the event with McDonald winning the “A” qualifying game and Freeman winning the Page 1-2 Playoff game on an extra end.

It is the third consecutive Manitoba Junior Men’s title for McDonald and Huminicki, matching the record set in 2017-2018-2019 by JT Ryan and Jacques Gauthier. It was a second consecutive Manitoba win for Olafson. Burgess was the Northern Ontario champion a year ago.

In the semi-final, Team McDonald defeated Zach Norris and his Morris team. Earlier, they had eliminated Rylan Campbell (West St. Paul) in the Page 3-4 Playoff game.

Hometown fans and the chance to play at home in the Junior Women’s championship could have been stressful for the Shaela Hayward team (Keira Krahn, India Young, Rylie Cox, Coach Diane Hayward, mentor-Coach Ron Westcott) but it proved to be very welcoming instead. The Carman team, recently returned from a gold medal run at the national U-18 Championship, went undefeated to win their second provincial title of the season.

Team Hayward played defending champion Zoey Terrick and her Heather team (Cassidy Dundas, Tessa Terrick, Jensen Letham, Coach Clint Cullen) in the provincial final. They jumped out to a 7-3 lead after six ends but Team Terrick fought back to trail by only one after eight ends. A deuce on the ninth gave the Carman team a 3-point lead coming home and they ran their opponents out of rocks for a 9-6 win.

In the semi-final, Terrick defeated Emily Cherwinski (AMCC). Earlier, Cherwinski had beaten Rylie Buchalter (Heather) in the Page 3-4 Playoff game.

The annual Manitoba Juniors Susan Galbraith Sportsmanship Awards were presented to Maddy Hollins (Team Cherwinski lead) and Tanner Treichel (second on the Nash Sugden Morden team).

The junior championship coaching awards were presented to Albert Bazinet (Coach of Team Norris) and Deb Popovic (Coach of Team Bethany Allan).

Granite Curling Club’s Team Carruthers (skip Brad Jacobs, Reid Carruthers, Derek Samagalski, Connor Njegovan, coach Rob Meakin) have earned a name change. The team has become Team Manitoba with a pair of wins Sunday in Stonewall to win the 2024 Viterra Championship.

The top-seeded Granite foursome had qualified for the championship’s Page Playoff 1 vs 2 game but lost Saturday evening to #3 seed Braden Calvert and his Fort Rouge team.

That dropped them into the Sunday morning semi-final where they defeated the #4 seeded Jordon McDonald – Assiniboine Memorial team (Dallas Burgess, Elias Huminicki, Cam Olafson, William Lyburn).

The final game re-match with Calvert (Corey Chambers, Kyle Kurz, Brendan Bilawka) was tied 3-3 playing the eighth end when Team Carruthers stole a point to lead 4-3. A blanked ninth gave Calvert the hammer coming home but his team was unable to build the end. When skip Brad Jacobs sealed off the draw path to the four foot circle with his last stone, Calvert was faced with a low percentage runback triple kill. No success – Jacobs stole two more for the 6-3 win.

The Granite team will represent Manitoba at the Montana’s Brier in Regina in early March.

Reid Carruthers, who won the Brier and World Championship with Jeff Stoughton in 2011, has participated in 11 previous Briers as Team Manitoba (7), a wild card entry (3), and as an alternate in 2008 when he played his first Brier game.

Derek Samagalski has five Brier appearances as Manitoba champion and three as a wild card entry.

Connor Njegovan has four previous Brier appearances with two each as Team Manitoba and wild card entry.

While skip Brad Jacobs has represented Northern Ontario at the Brier 14 times, it is his first Manitoba championship.

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The annual Hit-Draw-Tap competition for youth curlers in Manitoba played out Sunday in Stonewall. Earlier this year, 568 young curlers from across Manitoba took part in regional qualifying with the chance to represent their region in the provincial finals on the championship arena ice in Stonewall.

Seven regional representatives from Winnipeg and across Manitoba and a host club competitor participated in three different age categories: 6-8 years old, 9-10 years old, and 11-13 years old.

CurlManitoba organizers and former Manitoba champion Mike McEwen, who acted as the guest announcer, encouraged the kids as they concentrated on their hits, draws, and tap shots. The two older groups played on the full sheet of ice, prepared to championship standards by CurlManitoba’s internationally respected ice technician Greg Ewasko. The youngest group of curlers played “the short game”, shooting from the hack to the near set of rings.

There were trophies for the top three in each group and eight different rural Manitoba communities were represented among the nine trophy winners.  Hamiota curlers took home two trophies.

The trophy winners were:

6-8 years:

1. Ben Smith (Pinawa)
2. Rowan Zegers (Riverview)
3. Leah Major (Carman)

9-10 years:

1. Bramwell Friesen (Winkler)
2. Jayce Budey (Steinbach)
3. Sam Rawlings (Hamiota)

11-13 years:

1. Atiya Jack (East St. Paul)
2. Ryan Carmicheal (Hamiota)
3. Jakob Kehler (Ste. Anne)