With a 5W-2L record, Manitoba’s Mixed Doubles Champions have advanced to the playoff round of the Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship in Sudbury. They will play an elimination game Saturday morning against Lisa Weagle and John Epping with the winner advancing to a quarter-final game against Jennifer Jones & Brent Laing.
Kadriana and Colton Lott opened the competition with a pair of wins before losing to Jones/Laing who finished the round robin undefeated (7W-0L). They ran off three more victories before losing their final game to Tracey Fleury and Jacob Horgan. Jones/Laing at 7W-0L will advance to the quarterfinals. Lott/Lott at 5W-2L tied for second in the pool with Weagle/Epping but rank ahead of them as they defeated Weagle/Epping in their first round game.
A pre-event Curling Canada news release describes the playoff plan: “teams will play a seven-game round robin within their pools Tuesday through Friday, with 12 teams advancing to the single-knockout playoffs, which begin Saturday. The four pool winners will get byes directly into the quarter-finals, which take place Saturday at 7 p.m., while the teams with the next eight best records overall, regardless of the pool they’re in, will be matched up in the playoff opener at 1 p.m. Saturday.”
Three of the pool winners, Jones/Laing, Laura Walker & Kirk Muyres, Jocelyn Peterman & Brett Gallant, were unbeaten in seven games, and Chaelynn Kitz & Brayden Stewart won their pool with a 6W-1L record. The other eight teams include two with 6W-1L records and six with 5W-2L records.
Colton & Kadriana Lott (Winnipeg Beach) have won the 2023 CurlManitoba Dynasty Mixed Doubles Curling Championship. The couple, who had previously won the Manitoba Mixed Doubles title in 2018, defeated Lisa McLeod & Lyall Hudson (Pembina) Monday afternoon at St. Vital Curling Club to complete an undefeated run thorough the championship.
Kadriana & Colton Lott with Dynasty rep Aaron Tycoles
For Colton Lott, this year’s second Mixed Doubles victory is a second provincial championship of the season and his sixth lifetime Manitoba curling title. He won the 2023 Viterra Men’s Championship at second for the Matt Dunstone team and previously won Manitoba Junior Men’s titles in 2012, 2013, and 2016. For Kadriana Lott (as Sahaidak) the only previous championship was the 2018 Mixed Doubles.
After opening the games with single steals in each of the first two ends, Colton Lott’s big weight hit ability paid dividends with a slash double to remove a buried McLeod-Hudson shot stone. McLeod’s draw was behind the button and Kadriana’s last shot draw was good enough for a single point. They stole two deuces in the next two ends.
Trailing 5-2 after five ends, McLeod-Hudson used their power play on the sixth. It worked to produce a two to pull them within one point. Lott-Lott used their power play on the seventh and ended the game when they were able to put a five on the scoreboard.
Lott-Lott were unbeaten “A” qualifiers to advance to the playoffs and were riding a five game winning streak going into the final game. McLeod-Hudson had reached the final as “C” qualifiers with five wins in their first seven games.
In the Sunday afternoon semi-finals, McLeod-Hudson defeated Thomas Dunlop & Katie McKenzie (Stonewall) while Lott-Lott ousted Mikaylah & William Lyburn (Granite).
The four playoff qualifiers who were eliminated in the first round Sunday were Sarah-Jane Sass & Lucas Van Den Bosch (Granite), Stacey & Steve Irwin (Brandon), Lauren Rajala & Cyrus Brandt (St. Vital), and Janelle Lach & Corey Chambers (Fort Garry).
A total of 20 teams participated in the triple knock-out championship attempting to advance to the Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship in Sudbury, ON in lat March.
While the Manitoba Stick Curling Association’s SunLife Financial Open & Women’s Championships presented by Jim Anton are underway in Morris, at St. Vital, CurlManitoba’s Dynasty Mixed Doubles Championship has attracted 20 teams. While most of the teams are from the younger curling demographic, there are recognizable Scotties and Viterra Championship names included among the eight teams which have reached “A” Side semi-finals.
In the triple elimination event, three rural teams (from Brandon, Winnipeg Beach, and Stonewall), two teams from Granite, and one each for Fort Garry, Pemina and the host St. Vital club will play at 5:30PM or 8:30PM Saturday to determine the teams who will be in the first two qualifying games at 9:00AM Sunday.
Those match-ups include Colton & Kadriana Lott (Winnipeg Beach) vs Sarah-Jane Sass & Lucas Van Den Bosch (Granite); Steve & Stacey Irwin (Brandon) vs Thomas Dunlop & Katie macKenzie (Stonewall); and Corey Chambers & Janelle Lach (Fort Garry) vs Lyall Hudson & Lisa McLeod (Pembina) at 5:30PM. Cyrus Brandt & Lauren Rajala (St. Vital) vs Bryce McEwen & Roxie Trembath (Granite) is scheduled for 8:30PM.
The original 20 teams will play down to eight teams in the knockout playoff round on Monday.
(CurlManitoba Release) Mackenzie Arbuckle and Aaron Macdonell (St. Vital) have gone undefeated through CurlManitoba’s Canada Games Mixed Doubles Trials at Heather Curling Club and will represent Manitoba in Mixed Doubles Curling at the 2023 Canada Games in Prince Edward Island in February.
The Sunday evening gold medal game was the team’s seventh consecutive victory.
In that gold medal final, Arbuckle-Macdonell (Coach Tim Arbuckle) needed an extra end to defeat Katy Lukowich and Thomas McGillivray (Granite). The Granite team had trailed 5-1 at the break but a dramatic four-ender changed the momentum and Lukowich-McGillivray led 6-5 after six ends. A three for the St. Vital duo followed by a Lukowich clutch draw for two coming home set up the extra end.
Except for the two high-scoring power-play ends (#6 & #7), the entire game including the extra end was played with multiple rockso in the four-foot circle. On that extra end, an Arbuckle-Macdonell guard left nothing but a last stone runback attempt by Lukowich to try to contact their own stone in the top four foot and push it in but the shot over-curled. Arbuckle did not have to throw her final stone of the end in the 10-8 victory.
To reach the gold medal game, Arbucke-Macdonell were not seriously challenged in their 6-end semi-final game with Lauren Evason and Rylan Campbell (East St. Paul). The win meant they reached the final undefeated.
In their semi-final win, Lukowich-McGillivray (Coach Mark Lukowich) held off a comeback by Mikaylah Lyburn and Jordon McDonald (Deer Lodge). Lukowich-McGillivray dominated the game early and led by three after three ends. Lyburn-McDonald scored a three to be tied at the break and led 6-4 after scoring another three on the 6th end. Lukowich-McGillivray tied the game with two on the seventh end and controlled the centre line through the final end. With a counter in the four foot, a last stone guard by Lukowich wasn’t perfect but proved good enough as Lyburn-McDonald missed on a last stone attempt to remove the partially buried counter.
In the bronze medal game, Lyburn-McDonald (Coach William Lyburn) were up six on Evason and Rylan Campbell (Coach Cal Edie) after two ends thanks to a steal of four on the second end.
Lauren Rajala & Ryan Ostrowsky and Samantha Eagles & Logan Strand (both of Granite) were the other two playoff qualifiers, ousted in the Sunday morning quarter-finals.
Arbucke-Macdonell will join the two U18 teams to make up the Manitoba curling portion of Manitoba’s Canada Winter Games team in Summerside, Prince Edward Island on February.
Dayna Wahl and her Altona team (Piper Stoesz, Anna Marie Ginters, Gillian Hildebrand and Coach Keith Stoesz) and Virden’s Jace Foreman team (Elias Huminicki, Jack Steski, Rylan Graham, and Coach Graham Freeman) won the U18 Women’s and Men’s Canada Games Trials earlier this season.
The playoffs are set in CurlManitoba’s Canada Games Mixed Doubles Trials at the Heather Curling Club. As the only undefeated (4W-0L) team in round robin play, the St. Vital duo of Mackenzie Arbuckle and Aaron Macdonell have been seeded #1 in the playoff round and have earned a bye to the semifinals.
Lauren Rajala & Ryan Ostrowsky (Granite) finished second in their pool, behind Arbuckle-Macdonell, with a 3W-1L record.
Three other teams, two pools, Mikaylah Lyburn – Jordon McDonald (Deer Lodge), Samantha Eagles – Logan Strand (Granite) and Katie Lukowich – Thomas McGillivary (Granite), also all had 3W-1L records. Based on their pre-game last stone draws, Lyburn – McDonald were made #2 seed and also earn a bye to the semi-final.
Four teams finished with 2W-2L records but only one could advance to the six team playoff round, again based on their pre-game last stone draws. The nod went to Lauren Evason – Rylan Campbell (East St. Paul).
The quarterfinal games at 9AM Sunday will feature Eagles – Strand VS Lukowich – McGillivary AND Rajala -Ostrowsky (Granite) VS Evason – Campbell (East St. Paul).
The winners advance to the semifinals at 12:30PM with medal games scheduled for 4PM.
(CurlManitoba Release)CANADA GAMES MIXED DOUBLES TRIALS THIS WEEKEND Thirty of Manitoba’s most accomplished U20 curlers will compete in CurlManitoba’s Canada Games Trials this weekend at the Heather Curling Club.
The 2-person teams competing at Heather will play in three pools of five. Two teams in each pool will advance to a straight knockout playoff with the top two teams earning a bye to the semi-finals.
While very few of the team combinations have competed often in Mixed Doubles competition, many of the individuals playing this weekend have had the opportunity to play Mixed Doubles Tour and other events in the past two years.
The field features several players with proven track records and national competition experience with their four-person teams. These include:
** Zoey Terrick and Cassidy Dundas, who were teammates on the 2022 Manitoba U18 Women’s Champion team. Terrick will partner with Tanner Graham on a Heather team. Dundas will partner with her brother Hunter Dundas, playing out of Neepawa.
** Jordon McDonald and Cameron Olafson, who were teammates on the 2022 Manitoba U18 Men’s Champion team. McDonald also won the 2019 and 2022 U18 Championship and the 2022 U21 Men’s Championship. McDonald will partner with Mikaylah Lyburn on a Deer Lodge team.
** Luke Robins, who was a member of Ryan Ostrowsky’s Manitoba #2 team at the 2022 U18 national championship. He will partner with Rylie Buchalter on a West St. Paul team.
** Katy Lukowich, who skippd Northern Ontario to an overall 7-3 record at the 2022 U21 nationals, including a first place round robin record in her pool. She will partner with Thomas McGillivary on a Granite team.
CurlManitoba’s Canada Games Trials at the Heather will feature draws at 2PM and 6PM, Friday; 10AM, 2PM, and 6PM, Saturday and playoffs on Sunday.
For the first time, Mixed Doubles curling has been included in the Canada Games and this weekend event is designed to identify the final members of Manitoba’s curling contingent. Earlier this month,
Team Dayna Wahl (Altona) and Team Jace Freeman (Virden) earned the opportunity to represent Manitoba in the Women’s and Men’s competitions respectively at the Canada Games in Prince Edward Island in February.
(Curling Canada Release) With the inaugural Wheelchair Curling Mixed Doubles World Championship just days away, Canada’s athletes don’t really know what to expect.
Canadian Wheelchair Mixed Doubles team in a recent training camp session at Fort Rouge.
“I think it will be great,” said Jamie Anseeuw (Winnipeg). “There are no expectations, because it’s the first one.”
Anseeuw, along with partner Marie Wright were selected from the National Team Program to act as Canada’s representatives for the first mixed doubles wheelchair event, starting Saturday in Lohja, Finland. The 18-team event is split into two pools of nine, and will require an eight-game round robin before the playoff teams are decided.
As a new discipline, even the athletes aren’t sure how the first championship will unfold.
“Some of the European teams have actually been playing a lot of mixed doubles over there,” said Wright (Moose Jaw, Sask.). “We’ll come up against some pretty good teams for sure.”
“There’s pressure because Canada is always one of the strongest countries in the world of curling,” said Answeeuw. “But at the same time, because there are no expectations from prior championships, it takes some of that pressure away.”
Instead of worrying about what they don’t know, coach Dana Ferguson (Edmonton) has been working with the pair to make sure they focus on what they can control.
“They’ve worked really hard,” she said. “Every time we got together, they put the work in. They put the practice in. They’re doing all the stuff off the ice, which is all we can really ask for.”
Ferguson, a Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion in 2019 with Chelsea Carey, is in her first season as coach of the wheelchair team. She admits there’s been some on-the-job learning.
“Mixed doubles, even able bodied, is something that I don’t think people have mastered yet,” said Ferguson. “Adding in wheelchair mixed doubles – it’s a little bit different. So every practice we talk, we learn, and that’s all we can really do. So, the plan is to keep learning and use what we know to our advantage.”
“For Dana to say she’s new at this and doesn’t know much – I don’t buy that” says Wright. “She’s taught us a lot. We’ve learned a lot from her, specifically about strategy and tolerances.”
“We talk a lot about tolerance,” said Ferguson. “We know when a shot needs to be played, and what you can’t do, and what’s okay. We’ve given that a lot of thought, so we know we can get something out of every shot. We know that if we stay within our tolerance, we’ll get better success. Does that mean we’re going to win every game? No. It just gives us something to focus on.”
The pair of athletes, along with Ferguson and team leader Wayne Kiel arrived in Finland on Monday after a long journey from their training camp in Winnipeg.
“It was nice to have the opportunity to get together and practice,” said Wright “It’s given us a really good opportunity to read each other’s rocks, and see how we throw. I think that’s going to help too.”
The team had a practice in Lohja on Wednesday, and will open the tournament on Saturday against Latvia. The Canadians are anxious to get started.
“I think because it’s the first world championship,” said Anseuw, “the whole country is waiting to see how we come out of it. There’s a bit of pressure there, but I think it’s good pressure. We’re a solid team from a solid country so I expect good things.” “Anytime you can put the Maple Leaf on your back and represent your country, it’s an honour,” said Wright. “I’m really happy to have the privilege once again.”
(Curling Canada News Release – January 13) A pair of Olympians and former world champions will represent Canada in mixed doubles curling at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, it was announced jointly today by the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Curling Canada.
Morris-Homan (Photo from Curling Canada website)
Rachel Homan (Beaumont, Alta.) and John Morris (Canmore, Alta.), along with national coach Scott Pfeifer (Sherwood Park, Alta.), will play their first game at the National Aquatics Centre (AKA the Ice Cube) in Beijing on Feb. 2 at 8:05 p.m. ET against the Great British duo of Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat, the reigning world mixed doubles champions.
It will be Morris’s third trip to the Winter Olympics and an opportunity to be a three-time Olympic gold-medallist. He teamed with Kaitlyn Lawes in 2018 at PyeongChang to win the inaugural Olympic mixed doubles gold medal, and also played vice-skip for Kevin Martin’s four-player men’s team that claimed gold in 2010 at Vancouver. He is a three-time champion at the Tim Hortons Brier, and a member of Martin’s 2008 world championship gold-medal team.
Homan will be playing in her second Olympics, having skipped Canada’s women’s team in 2018 in PyeongChang. Homan, a three-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion, also skipped her team to a world women’s championship gold medal in 2017 in Beijing at the Capital Indoor Stadium — just 17 minutes away from the Ice Cube curling venue.
“John and I are eager to get to Beijing and make Canada proud,” said Homan. “We know these are difficult circumstances, and we truly appreciate the faith being shown in us by Curling Canada.”
“Rachel and I have played a lot of mixed doubles together over the years with the dream of playing for Canada at the Olympics,” added Morris. “We can’t wait to get over there and give it our best. We know it’s a tough field, but we’ve worked extremely hard this season and we’ll be fighting hard for gold in Beijing.”
Canada’s Olympic mixed doubles team was supposed to be the winner of the Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials that were scheduled for Dec. 28-Jan. 2 in Portage la Prairie, Man. But positive tests for COVID-19 among athletes who were scheduled to attend, along with the potential for more cases during the event, forced Curling Canada to cancel the Trials and select a team to nominate to the COC.“After cancelling the Trials, we engaged in extensive consultation with the Canadian Olympic Committee and Own the Podium and it became increasingly apparent that the nomination criteria for selecting athletes should put a premium on experience on the world championship and Olympic stage, as well as experience and success playing together in mixed doubles,” said Katherine Henderson, Chief Executive Officer of Curling Canada. “We are blessed with an amazing pool of mixed doubles players, and I feel nothing but compassion for the curlers who were to compete in the Trials and had that opportunity taken from them by the pandemic. But we are confident that Rachel and John will make Canada proud in Beijing.”
Homan and Morris, both originally from Ottawa and now playing out of the Canmore Golf and Curling Club, have extensive experience in the mixed doubles discipline. They were slated to team up at the 2017 Canadian Mixed Doubles Trials before Homan’s four-player women’s team prevailed at the 2017 Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials. Morris then teamed with Lawes to win the mixed doubles trials and went on to the Olympic gold a few weeks later.
Homan and Morris won a silver medal at the 2017 Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship, and earlier this season topped a world-class field to win the Qualico Mixed Doubles Classic in Canmore and Banff, Alta., beating the duo of Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant (both 2022 Olympians in four-player curling) in the final.
Team Jennifer Jones (Winnipeg) and Team Brad Gushue (St. John’s, N.L.) will be Canada’s four-player teams at the Winter Olympics.
Prior to being named to Team Canada, all nominations are subject to approval by the Canadian Olympic Committee’s Team Selection Committee following its receipt of nominations by all National Sport Organizations.
“We fully support the adjustment made by Curling Canada in their team selection criteria for mixed doubles under the extraordinary circumstances, and we are excited to watch Team Canada compete,” said Eric Myles, Chief of Sport for the Canadian Olympic Committee.
“Every sport has been impacted differently around qualifying Olympic quota spots as a result of COVID-19, and the cancellation of the mixed doubles curling trials in Canada is another example of that,” added Anne Merklinger, chief executive officer, Own the Podium. “We are fortunate in Canada to have significant depth in our national curling program. While it is unfortunate the nation’s elite curling athletes were not able to compete head-to-head for the opportunity to represent Canada in Beijing during these unprecedented times, we are thrilled that Curling Canada has been able to find a solution to field a strong team at the Olympic Winter Games.”
CLICK HERE for the full Olympic curling schedule. CBC will provide full broadcast coverage of the Olympic Winter Games on its various platforms.
There’s been a lot of talk about who should represent Canada in the Olympic Mixed Double competition so I thought I’d weigh in before the announcement is made. It has to come pretty soon!
There have been several pairings suggested as Curling Canada faces the never before situation of having to name a team.
In my mind there is only one team who can be named for which the logic of nomination cannot be criticized. That would be if the decision is to have John Morris and Kaitlyn Lawes compete. Send the reigning Olympic Gold Medalists back to defend the title. Their competitive successes since 2018 show their talent is unabated and they have proven ability in the International Mixed Doubles arena.
The one small issue is that asking Kaitlyn to compete in both Mixed Doubles and 4’s with Team Jones would be contrary to standing Curling Canada policy of not having a player represent us in both disciplines.
That’s not a big issue in these unprecedented times – and I wouldn’t even worry about someone claiming it as a precedent at some future time. It would be easy to argue it was a unique time which demanded unique circumstances.
However, for the record, I would not favour the Lawes-Morris solution. The concern about negatively impacting results of the Jones team is real. I acknowledge both results are possible given that USA’s Matt Hamilton finished 6th in Mixed Doubles at the 2018 Olympics and then won gold with John Shuster but Becca Hamilton finished 6th in Mixed Doubles and 8th in the Women’s event at the same Olympics.
Some say send Kerri Einarson and Brad Gushue, as defending Canadian champions. I can see the arguments in their favour but my Lawes logic applies to Gushue as well.
Some say send Kaitlyn Lawes and Brad Gushue – two talented elite athletes who will already be on site. I like that logic but at the same time I worry about the impact on results for both teams.
Some say Kerri Einarson and Brad Jacobs (Gushue’s appointed replacement). I can’t see this one – Jacobs is one of the greatest players of our time but he has no Mixed Doubles experience – or at least his name does not appear on the CMDR (Canadian Mixed Doubles Ranking), even in the 37 teams with zero points, all ranked below #282.
And in my mind – the key to the nomination is international Mixed Doubles EXPERIENCE and SUCCESS as a team.
In 2017, in Lethbridge, I watched Joanne Courtney and Reid Carruthers play under the incredible pressure of having to win Canada a spot in the Olympics. My observation was that they succeeded for two reasons: first, they were (and are) incredibly talented players and second, they adapted their game as the event progressed. They had beaten Canadians to earn the right to play in Lethbridge but they knew they were inexperienced at the international game and they adopted strategy played against them and used it to beat the next team they played.
In the years since, Canada’s World Mixed Doubles results have shown no improvement – in other words we have yet to win a World Mixed Doubles championship sending the champion developed through our current system. We were all delighted when Einarson-Gushue earned Canada a spot in the 2022 Olympics but admittedly were less excited that they missed the medals at the Worlds.
I am thinking it is time we sent a more specialized Mixed Doubles team to major international events rather than hoping two talented players can combine their skills for a couple of weeks and win at the international level. We will only win long-term in the International Mixed Doubles arena when we compete with teams who play Mixed Doubles regularly, if not exclusively.
So if not Lawes and Morris, who I have already said I would understand but disagree with, I am in favour of sending a team to Beijing based on two primary considerations.
#1: The CMDR and I mean the pure one – the CMDR which ranks only the performance based on Mixed Doubles competition and does not bring in the individual CTRS-4’s team successes.
#2: Success in international Mixed Doubles competition
Only after weighing these two would I consider #3: performance in the Canadian championship and #4: the contributions to the CMDR of the players’ 4’s team successes.
When I look at the pure CMDR list, four teams in the top eight meet my #2 criteria – international Mixed Doubles success. The top two, Nancy Martin & Tyrel Griffith and Clancy Grandy & Patrick Janssen, lack significant international experience.
Kadriana Sahaidak & Colton Lott: Ranked #3 on CMDR, they have had very good success at the Canadian Championship (silver medal 2018 & 2021) but more important they have proven themselves internationally. They won gold in one of the three preliminary round events of the 2018-19 season’s Curling World Cup and they finished tied for third in the rankings at the series grand final event. That event was held in China so an extra bonus in selecting this team is that they have already had the experience of playing in the Olympic host nation.
Curling Canada Photo
Jocelyn Peterman & Brett Gallant: Ranked #6 on CMDR, they also have success internationally as a team. They won the Canadian Championship and the World Silver Medal in 2019. They also have the advantage (or disadvantage) of already planning to be in Beijing with the Jones and Gushue teams. That of course fits my Lawes argument on both sides and I wouldn’t want to risk results for the two 4’s teams despite the fact this pair is ranked #1 when the CTRS is rolled into the rankings discussion.
Curling Canada Photo
Laura Walker & Kirk Muyres: Ranked #7 on CMDR, they have the same (in fact slightly better) success internationally as a team as Sahiadak-Lott. They won gold in one of the World Cup preliminary events and silver in the grand final event in China. Added weight for them is that Muyres was the 2018 Canadian Champion and World Bronze Medalist (partnered with Laura Crocker).
Photo from Curling Canada website
Rachel Homan – John Morris: Ranked #8 on CMDR, purely on their names, they might be the logical choice of these four. Morris is the reigning gold medallist, a world champion and an accomplished Mixed Doubles player. Homan is a world champion, and an Olympian who has been in that arena, and she is surely motivated to win an Olympic medal to balance the 2018 results.
**
No matter who the choice is, there will be much more criticism than kudos. If that teams falls short of the medals there will be a different kind of criticism than if Teams Gushue &/or Jones fall short.
All I can say is I’m glad it is not my decision. There are 10 or a dozen teams who could logically be chosen – and they would all do it with pride. There just is no guarantee it is going to work but I will always maintain that an experienced Mixed Doubles team with a proven international track record is our best bet for a Mixed Doubles medal in Beijing.
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