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).
“Just put it right here” says the still very competitive Joyce McDougall.
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.
“If we hit that yellow right, we can kill both reds,” Brian Lowdon (cap) said to Cliff Gouldie. The shot was made and they went on to win.
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.
Connor Njegovan, Brad Jacobs, Reid Carruthers, Derek Samagalski with Viterra’s Kent Klimpke (r) and Ray Baloan (l)
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.
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 Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame & Museum Board of Directors wishes to advise of a change of venue for the draw of the prizes in its Manitoba Sports Tickets Raffle. (LGCA License 4051-40340)
The draw will occur at 1PM, Sunday, February 11, 2024 (the original scheduled time) at Veteran’s Memorial Sports Complex in Stonewall – site of the Viterra Championship. Specifically, the computerized draw will be initiated from the Livestream Broadcast/ Media Table area at the “away-end” of Sheet C.
(MCHoF&M Release) Three Canadian champion junior teams, a pair of dedicated long-term volunteers, and a curler with six Manitoba, Canadian and World championships on his resume will be honoured by induction into the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame at the 2024 induction dinner, May 5 at CanadInn’s Polo Park in Winnipeg.
Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame & Museum President Peter Nicholls extends his congratulations to the 2024 inductee class and to the friends, family and curling fans who have supported their competitive and volunteer efforts.
The 2024 BUILDER inductees include former CurlManitoba President and Curling Canada Governor Sam Antila who has also been a long-time volunteer at Thompson’s Burntwood Curling Club and Bill Biehl, a pioneer in the implementation of organized coaching instruction and coaching programs in Manitoba and three-times past-President of Winnipeg’s Heather Curling Club.
The 2024 CURLER inductee is Ken Tresoor who won a pair of Manitoba Mixed titles along with a pair of Manitoba Men’s championships, one Canadian, and one World title in an over 25-year competitive career.
The three junior champion TEAM inductees honour the 1989 Canadian champion and world bronze medal team skipped by Cathy Overton, the 1994 Canadian champion team skipped by Jennifer Jones, and the 1995 Canadian champion and world bronze medal team skipped by Chris Galbraith.
“We are pleased to welcome these very worthy inductees into the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame,” says Nicholls. “Builders Sam Antila and Bill Biehl have played an important leadership role in Manitoba curling. Ken Tresoor and the members of the Overton, Jones and Galbraith teams set standards of excellence which junior teams following them have been challenged to meet and surpass.”
The 2024 Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame Induction Dinner will be hosted at CanadInns Destination Centre Polo Park on May 5, 2024. Dinner ticket prices will be held at $100 for 2024. More complete dinner details will be announced by March 1, 2024.
Interested persons are invited to send an email to mca@curlmanitoba.org to purchase tickets or to request more complete information when the details are finalized.
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BUILDER: Sam Antila was originally from Larder Lake in Northern Ontario where he had been a successful downhill skier. He began to curl when he moved to Northern Manitoba and it became his sport of choice in Thompson in 1982 when he recognized it could provide the competitive sport outlet he had been missing. This led him to a 40-year involvement with Thompson’s Burntwood Curling Club as well as to the boardrooms of both CurlManitoba and Curling Canada.
In Thompson, in the 1980’s, his first involvement with the local curling club was as a member of the bonspiel committee and willing volunteer for other roles as needed. After many years, and many roles, on the Burntwood Curling Club Executive and major events in the community, he would eventually serve as President – but not until after he served as CurlManitoba President and Curling Canada Governor.
At CurlManitoba, it was his objective to ensure that the concerns of Manitoba’s northern clubs and curlers were known and considered in provincial decisions. He brought the perspectives of an active competitor and an active club executive member to the Board table and was dedicated to ensuring that competitive and development opportunities existed for clubs across rural and northern Manitoba.
As President of CurlManitoba, where he was a Manitoba delegate at the regular meetings of the members of Curling Canada, he chaired the Provincial Associations Council at the national meetings and was recruited to serve as a Governor of Curling Canada. He served a two-year term (2018-19 & 2019-20) as Governor. His very recent experience at the provincial association level provided representation of provincial concerns in discussions of the same and new issues – but now from the national perspective.
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BUILDER: Bill Biehl was one of the first to become involved in Manitoba when the Curl Canada technical coach-instruction program was implemented in the 1970’s. He became certified as a Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 Course Conductor and from 1978 to 1985, he served as Manitoba’s Provincial Coordinator (known at the time as the Master Course Conductor). In this capacity, he organized instructional programs and helped to train an estimated 400 curlers to serve as course instructors and curling coaches.
During the approximately two decades when the MCA & MLCA offered their junior curling camps program, Bill dedicated much of each summer to an instructor role. In the years 2003-2006, when he was the CurlManitoba Technical Director, he also took the lead role in organizing the junior instructional camps. He retired from CurlManitoba and direct involvement in coach-instructor training in 2006 when he took on a one-year assignment as a national coach-instructor in Italy.
At the club level, beginning as Junior Coordinator, and continuing for thirteen years, he was a member of the executive of the Heather Curling Club. He served as club President in 1983-84. He returned to the Executive and again served as President in 2010-11 and 2011-12. At the same time, he served as a member of the CurlManitoba Board of Directors for a three-year term (2010-11 to 2012-13).
For several years prior to 1993, Bill Biehl was the only certified national official in Manitoba. During the late 1980’s and in the 1990’s he was head official for several Manitoba Men’s, Scotties, Juniors, and Mixed Championships, an on-ice official on many other occasions at provincial, national events., and. His officiating assignment included Brandon’s 1995 Worlds (On-ice Official) and the 1997 Canadian Seniors – Nipawin, SK (Head Official).
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CURLER: Ken Tresoor played in his first Manitoba Junior Championship in 1985 and competed in a total of 22 Manitoba championships (2 Junior, 16 Men’s, 4 Mixed) by the time of his final appearance at the Men’s championship in 2012. He won Manitoba Mixed Championships with Howard Restall (1990) and Jeff Stoughton (1994). He won Manitoba Men’s titles with Jeff Stoughton in 1991 and 1996 and the 1996 team went on to win Canadian and World Championships. The 1996 team compiled a 30W-5L record in winning the Manitoba, Canadian and World titles. His overall championship win-loss record was 128W-61L in 27 championship appearances.
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TEAM OVERTON 1989: The 1989 Canadian Junior Women’s Champion team of Cathy Overton, Tracy Baldwin. Carol Harvey, and Tracy Bush won events in both the Junior Women’s and MLCA bonspiels and posted a 5W-1L record to win the Manitoba Junior Women’s title.
The team had the unique experience of not having to travel outside the province to win the Canadian juniors and advance to the World championship.
Playing at home at the Heather Curling Club, the team won the Canadian Championship and that trip to the world championship with a perfect 11W-0L record.
The Worlds was played in Portage la Prairie. Overton’s Team Canada finished with a 9W-2L record – they finished the round robin at 8W-1L (tied for first with Scotland) but lost a semifinal game 8-7 to Sweden before beating Switzerland 8-1 to win the bronze medal.
Cathy Overton was named All-Star skip at both the Canadian and World Championships. Tracy Baldwin was all star third at the Canadians and Tracy Bush was all star lead at the Worlds.
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TEAM JONES 1994: Since the inception of world championship play, the 1994 Canadian Junior Women’s champion team has the unique (and unfortunate) distinction of being the only Canadian Junior champion team to not compete at a world championship. Jennifer Jones, Trisha Baldwin, Jill Officer and Dana Malanchuk showed a progression of success. In 1992, they lost the Manitoba Junior final. They won Manitoba in 1993 and finished fifth at Canadians. In 1994, they were undefeated (6W-0L) to win Manitoba again and won the Canadian title with an 11W-4L record.
Due to change in qualifying protocol, they did not have an opportunity to play at the Worlds but rather had an assured spot in the next year’s Canadian playoffs round. They also had the chance to compete again to be Team Manitoba but lost the 1995 final. The Canadians in 1995 became a sudden-death affair – dropped into the playoff round as Team Canada, they lost their first game. One and done, they missed their World championship opportunity.
Jennifer Jones was co-All-Star skip at the 1994 Canadian Championship.
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TEAM GALBRAITH 1995: In 1995, brothers Chris (Skip) & Bryan (lead) Galbraith joined forces with Scott Cripps (third) and Brent Barrett (second) to record a 25W-6L record in winning the Manitoba and Canadian Junior Men’s titles and the World bronze medal.
The 1994-95 line-up proved to be a winning combination. The Fort Rouge team recorded 6W-1L and 10W-3L records in winning the Manitoba and Canadian Championships.
As Team Canada at the World Juniors in Perth, Scotland the Galbraith team finished the round robin with an 8W-1L record to tie for first in the standings with Scotland’s Tom Brewster team. Team Galbraith bounced back from a semi-final loss to Germany to beat Sweden in the bronze medal game while Scotland won the gold medal.
Chris Galbraith was the Canadian Championship All-Star skip and received the World Junior Men’s Sportsmanship Award.
Beth Peterson’s Assiniboine Memorial team was the only one to win all three of their championship round games and will advance to the Sunday playoffs of the Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts presented by RME.
Peterson, the fourth seed in the competition, defeated both #2 Kate Cameron (Granite) and #3 Jolene Campbell (AMCC) as well as Zoey Terrick (Heather) in the team’s successful run to the playoffs.
Top seed Kaitlyn Lawes (Fort Rouge) lost Saturday morning to Campbell but bounced back to beat Cameron in an afternoon game which gave them a 7W-1L record and first place in the standings. With the win, the Lawes foursome earned the bye to the Sunday afternoon (2:00PM) final.
Cameron finished with a 6W-2L record, tied with Peterson, and the two will meet in the Sunday morning (9:30AM) semi-final.
With Peterson posting the third win Saturday afternoon, the only other team with a playoff hope was the Jolene Campbell team. A last round loss to Kristy Watling (East St. Paul) dashed the Campbell team’s hopes as they both finished with 5W-3L records.
The Deneen Cup dates back to the early days of organized women’s curling in Manitoba. Its intent was, and continues to be, to create an opportunity for creation of relationships between clubs and curlers in a friendly inter-club competition.
The first renewal saw two teams of women from Lorette Curling Club travel to Pembina for two games of curling and hospitality, hosted by Pembina.
During the 8-end games, the host four on each sheet of ice changes sheets at the mid-game break – creating the opportunity for all eight competitors from each club to play against the eight from the other club. Total score of the two games decides the winner.
Tara Kolisnyk, vice-president of the Lorette Curling Club, is chair of the coordinating committee which has put time and effort into renewal of the Deneen Cup Competition over the past year. She was one of the Lorette curlers who visited Pembina.
While it is inevitable that score will be kept, Ms. Kolisynk emphasised the importance of the hospitality received at Pembina. “Pembina CC were fantastic hosts,” she says.
During the mid-game break, and again over supper hosted by Pembina, she noted that “we spent the time visiting, asking about different leagues, bonspiels and sharing information about our respective clubs. And the food and atmosphere were top notch.”
She says the event “really solidified the social aspect of curling. Yes, everyone wanted to play their best and compete to the best of their abilities but it was awesome to see 16 ladies come together, get along and enjoy the sport we all love to play.”
For the historical record, the winner of the renewal match was Pembina CC, whose teams won by a total score of 22-9. As winner, Pembina will send two teams to Portage la Prairie in the next match in the series.
The 2023/2024 Deneen Cup has 5 clubs competing, with four clubs hosting games for the season. These games are spread through January and February.
Future challengers include Portage la Prairie (to host January 28), St. Vital (to host February 11), and Charleswood (to host February 28).
Lessons learned from the matches this season will be taken into consideration in for the planning and organizing for next season. Registration information for the 2024/2025 season will be available on the Curl Manitoba website in March 2024. The rules and information about the Deneen Cup are also available on the website.
On behalf of the O’Grady Cup Trustees, Ron Margolis extended his congratulations to the volunteers who have taken on the task of renewing the Deneen Cup inter-club competition. “We have seen the value of the O’Grady in creating friendly competition between clubs and in maintaining the traditional emphasis on comradeship and friendly rivalry ahead of competition. We know the Deneen Cup will bring those same attributes to women curlers in Manitoba as the O’Grady Cup has for the men,” he said.
Participants in the Deneen Cup renewal’s first match included:
Pembina Curling Club: Staci Price, Laura Brinkman, Colbie Sierhuis, Danielle Wutske, Lisa Birchard, Samantha Gevers, Quinn Allan, and Hannah Thiessen
Manitoba sports fans have a special opportunity to win an opportunity to cheer for Team Manitoba at the Regina Montana’s Brier OR MAYBE the Winnipeg Jets in the drive (hopefully) to the Stanley Cup OR MAYBE the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as they start the season with a Grey Cup re-match with the Montreal Alouettes.
These are the featured prizes in the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame & Museum’s 2024 Manitoba Sports Ticket Raffle (License: LGCA 4051-43040). The window of opportunity is a small one – ticket sales launched today and will close February 10. The winners will be announced at the Viterra Championship in Stonewall.
The first three prizes, in order, are:
Two event passes for the Regina Montana’s Brier (March 1-10) PLUS $500
Two tickets for the Winnipeg Jets VS Seattle Kraken (March 5)
Two tickets on the 50-yeard line, lower bowl, for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers VS Montreal Alouettes (June 6)
Additional prizes will include two pairs of CurlManitoba all-season championship passes for the 2024-25 curling season. The recipients will receive a pair of passes which includes the U-18 & U-21 championships along with the Viterra Men’s, Scotties, Seniors, Masters, Mixed and Club Championship events. There will also be an early-bird prize draw (February 6) for a pair of passes compliments of the 2024 Stonewall Viterra Championship Committee (February 6-11).
Proceeds of the fund-raiser will support the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame & Museum’s virtual museum project (helping to make the museum’s collection of some 40,000 items available online) and CurlManitoba Junior Development projects rough the Curling for Life Endowment Fund.
Ticket sales are $5.00 each and will also be available in blocks of three for $10. They can be purchased online at www.fundingchange.ca/mbcurlmuseum .
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