Teams from Altona, Carman, and Morden, the heart of Manitoba’s Pembina Valley region, will represent Manitoba at the national U-18 championships in February.

Carman’s Shaela Hayward team won the Asham U-18 Women’s provincial curling championship Sunday afternoon in Selkirk to win a trip to the nationals. The U-18 Men’s final was won by Altona’s Rylan Campbell team over Morden’s Nash Sugden – both will be going to the national championship in Ottawa.

Hayward (Keira Krahn, India Young, Rylie Cox, Coach Diane Hayward) was the only unbeaten team through the weekend competition in Selkirk. They posted a 5W-0L round-robin record and defeated Cassidy Dundas – Heather (Lauren Evason, Eryn Czirfusz, Tessa Terrick, Coach Craig Terrick) in the Page 1 vs 1 Playoff game Saturday evening.

The Dundas foursome defeated clubmate Bethany Allan (Emily Ostrowsky, Amelie Le Heiget, Taylor Letham, Coach Deb Popovic) in the Sunday morning semi-final to set up a rematch. The result was the same, however, as the Hayward foursome won 6-3 to complete a perfect 7W-0L weekend.

The Asham U-18 Men’s final game also featured a re-match of the Page 1-1 Playoff game but with a different result.

Nash Sugden – Morden (Tyler Fehr, Tanner Treichel, Ryan Thiessen, Coach Gord Titchkosky) were extra end winners over Rylan Campbell – Altona (Logan Zacharias, Nick Senff, Rylan Graham, Coach Sheldon Zacharias) Saturday evening.

The Campbell team fought back to the final with a semi-final win over the Colin Desaulniers-skipped Kieran Callewaert team – AMCC (Luc Cormier, Desaulniers, Quinn Legace, Justin Arbez, Coach Rej Lagace). That semi-final win created the momentum needed for a dominant final game performance which saw them put three three’s and a five on the scoreboard.

Over the weekend, the Team Campbell record was 6W-1L while Team Sugden had a 5W-1L record.

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As provincial champions, the Hayward and Campbell team records at the national championship in Ottawa will be the records which count in the tally to determine whether Manitoba will have one or two entries at the nationals a year from now. As the formula includes the provincial champion’s record across two years, this year’s record and the record from a year ago will be taken into account.

Shaela Hayward’s Carman team & Nash Sugden’s Morden team have advanced to the Sunday 1:30PM final games of CurlManitoba’s Asham U-18 Women’s & Men’s provincial championships in Selkirk.

Saturday evening, Shaela Hayward – Carman (Keira Krahn, India Young, Rylie Cox) defeated Cassidy Dundas – Heather (Lauren Evason, Eryn Czirfusz, Tessa Terrick) 5-4 in the Page 1 vs 1 playoff game. Dundas will play in the 9:30AM semi-final against Bethany Allan – Heather (Emily Ostrowsky, Amelie Le Heiget, Taylor Letham).

Allan advanced by defeating Liv Leadbeater – Swan River (Kate Patterson, Calli Goethe, Lexie Leadbeater) 8-3 in the Page 2-2 Playoff game.

Hayward and Dundas had advanced to the Page Playoff 1-1 game with perfect 5W-0L records while Leadbeater and Allan were the second place teams in the pools with 4W-1L records.

Meanwhile, in the U-18 Men’s competition, Nash Sugden – Morden (Tyler Fehr, Tanner Treichel, Ryan Thiessen) and Rylan Campbell – Altona (Logan Zacharias, Nick Senff, Rylan Graham) needed an extra end to decide their Page 1-1 game. Campbell needed one to tie coming home and Sugden posted a three on the extra end for an 8-5 win.

The Sugden team advances to the Sunday 1:30PM final. Campbell will play Kieran Callewaert – AMCC (Luc Cormier, Colin Desaulniers, Quinn Legace) in the morning semi-final. Callewaert advanced with a 7-6 win over Evan Boutet – Ft Garry (Cooper Steele, Liam Burton, Hayden Pich).

The Callewaert team win over Boutet came on the strength of a five on the second end. Credit the Boutet team, they fought back to be tied coming home but the AMCC foursome had hammer for a 7-6 win.

Sugden and Campbell had advanced to the Page Playoff 1-1 game with perfect 4W-0L records while Boutet and Callewaert were the second place teams in the pools with 2W-2L records.

(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).