Jace Freeman (Virden) and his team won a pair of games Friday to earn the first place bye to the final in the Asham CurlManitoba U-18 Men`s Championship in Altona.

The wins over Nash Sugden (Morden) and Zach Norris (Morris) gave the Freeman team, which has already earned the right to represent Manitoba in the Canada Winter Games, a final record of 5W-1L. Along with the bye to the final, they also earned the first of two available invitations to attend the nationals in Timmins, ON in early February.

Norris had earlier won over Nathan Poklar (East St. Paul) so their final 4W-2L record earned them a spot in the Saturday morning semifinal against Ronan Peterson (Heather).

Norris finishes with a 4W-2L record, tied with Ronan Peterson (Heather) who had a last round bye. Peterson and Norris will meet in the semi-final Saturday morning.

Peterson won over Luke Robins (West St. Paul) on the morning draw and had the afternoon bye to finish with a 4W-2L record as well.

Colton Olafson (Portage) had a morning bye and chance to move into the 4W-2L tie but lost 8-4 to Luke Robins (West St. Paul) and finished 3W-3L, out of the playoffs.

Nash Sugden (Morden) also had a playoff chance when the day began but had to win two games on the final day. The Morden team earned a split with the loss to Freeman and a win over Nathan Poklar (East St. Paul).

The semi-final is at 9AM and the final at 1PM Saturday.

Jace Freeman (Virden), Zach Norris (Morris) and Ronan Peterson (Heather) have all completed the second day of play in the Asham CurlManitoba U-18 Men’s Championship with a pair of victories.

Freeman, who had a third round bye, leads the way with a perfect 2W-0L record. Norris and Peterson are both at 2W-1L after a third round game between the two, won by Peterson.

It was a critical win for Team Peterson, highly ranked coming into the event. They had lost their opener and needed to avoid a second loss this early in the event.

 Peterson’s early Wednesday win over Colton Olafson (Portage) set up an evening match with unbeaten Zach Norris (Morris). Norris opened with a deuce but gave up 6 points over the next four ends to trail 6-2 in a 9-5 win for Peterson.

Key to the championship aspirations of both Peterson and Norris is the fact that both have yet to play Freeman.

The U-18 Men’s playoff will see the first place team advance to the final with second and third meeting in the semifinal. The two finalists will each win an invitation to compete in the nationals.