Many of Saskatchewan’s top young mixed doubles curlers were at Estevan’s Power Dodge Curling Centre from Friday to Monday for the CurlSask U18 Mixed Doubles provincials.
The tandem of Braden Fleischhacker and Abbey Johnson, competing out of the Weyburn Curling Club, and coached by Clare Johnson, won the A final. They won 7-3 in seven ends over Cody Sutherland and Rianna Kish from the Sutherland Curling Club in Saskatoon.
The Johnson-Fleischhacker rink scored one in the first and stole two in the second for an early 3-0 lead. Sutherland and Kish scored one in the third and stole one in the fourth to pull within one, but the Weyburn team scored two in the fifth to restore their three-point lead.
Sutherland and Kish would get one in the sixth, but then Johnson and Fleischhacker added two more to finish the scoring.
A total of 20 teams competed at provincials. Six of the teams who entered advanced to the adult provincials, which will be held in Weyburn from Feb. 21-24.
There was one local team entered at the tournament in Estevan, and while they didn’t advance beyond the competition, they still came away with something. The team of Shoni King and Devin Fichter, coached by Pauline Ziehl Grimsrud, won the consolation final, defeating Bryden Tessier and Jazmin Ackerman of the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre 11-6 in the consolation final.
King and Fichter jumped out to an early 7-0 lead in the consolation final, thanks to a score of four in the first and a steal of three in the second. After their opponents scored two in the third, King and Fichter replied with two in the fourth.
The Moose Jaw entry scored one in the fifth and stole three in the sixth to pull within three, but the Estevan team score one in the seventh and stole one in the eighth to win.
King and Fichter went 1-3 in the round robin, but then rattled off three straight wins in the consolation round. They started with a 14-3 loss to Weyburn’s Landon Field and Emily Haupstein, and then lost 9-7 to the Sutherland Curling Club’s Caden Snow and Alana Huntington.
In the latter game, King and Fichter trailed 6-0 through three ends, but then had five in the fourth to make it interesting.
Their lone win in the round robin was 7-5 over Moose Jaw’s Mick Thompson and Ana Cornea. The Estevan team led 3-0 after the first end, but was then outscored 5-1 over the next five ends. They recovered to score two in the seventh and steal one in the eighth and win the game.
In their final round robin game, they lost 12-1 to the Sutherland club’s Michael Hom and Kelcee Kennedy.
In the relegation round, they defeated Kelsey Noyes and Andy Lloyd of Moose Jaw 6-1 by scoring single points in each end, except for the fifth, when their opponents picked up their lone point of the game.
Then they won 11-6 over Joshua Bryden and Kyla Thies from the Callie Curling Club in Regina to advance to the consolation final. Estevan jumped out to a 6-0 lead after three ends, and while Bryden and Thies would make it close at 7-6, thanks to a score of four in the sixth, a three-point end in the seventh and a steal of one in the eighth for the local rink clinched the victory.
