Many of the top curlers from across the province were at the Power Dodge Curling Centre from Thursday to Sunday for the provincial mixed curling championships, and some local curlers impressed at the event.
The mixed featured 24 teams from across the province. There were plenty of notable curlers in the field. Robyn Silvernagle, who skipped Saskatchewan’s entry at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts national championship, was the third on Tyler Hartung’s rink. Kara Thevenot, who played for Silvernagle at the Scotties, was also on Hartung’s squad.
Former national Scotties champion Amber Holland was the third on Dustin Kalthoff’s rink, and reigning champion Jason Ackerman was back in the provincials field. Multi-time provincial women’s curling champion Michelle Englot skipped a team at the mixed, too.
Ultimately, it was Shaun Meachem who defeated Hartung’s rink 7-2 in the A final. Meachem scored two in the first end, but Hartung replied with two in the second.
Meachem took over from there. He scored one in the third, then stole two in the fourth, and added steals of one in the fifth and sixth ends. The two teams shook hands afterwards.
Meachem reached the final with a 6-2 victory over Justin Heather in six ends in the semifinal round after jumping out to a 4-0 lead through three ends. Hartung, meanwhile, knocked off Ackerman 4-3 in the other semifinal.
But much of the attention was on the local entries. Six teams from the Power Dodge Curling Centre competed. Three of them – Wade St. Onge, Kris Keating and Shawn Meyer – advanced to the quarter-finals, although all three were knocked out in that round.
St. Onge won three straight games in the C event to reach the playoffs, before losing 10-3 to Meachem in the quarters.
He opened with an 8-2 loss to Meyer in the first draw of the tournament. He recovered to beat Keating 6-5 the following morning, but then lost 8-5 to Heather.
In the C event, he won 7-5 over Aaron Verbeem, and pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the tournament, a 6-5 victory over Englot’s team in what was a back-and-forth affair.
The St. Onge rink qualified for the quarters with a 6-5 victory over another local rink, Tye Olson.
Other members of the St. Onge rink were third Courtney Montgomery, second Tyler Corbin and lead Jana Anseth.
Meyer won his first two games of the tournament in convincing fashion, 8-2 over St. Onge and 9-3 over Shane Kit. A 4-3 loss to Kalthoff dropped him down to the B event.
Another convincing win followed, 8-1 over Shane Vollman, and a 6-4 win over Ben Gamble put them in the B final against Meachem, but they lost 10-0.
Meyer defeated Kit 6-3 in the C final to reach the quarter-finals, but then lost 8-3 to Hartung.
Third Alexandra Meyer, second Austin Williamson and lead Leah Moriarty were also part of Meyer’s rink.
Kris Keating opened with a 9-2 win over Tyson Williamson, but then lost 7-4 to Hartung and 6-5 to St. Onge to fall to the C event. He rattled off four straight wins to reach the quarter-finals, defeating Clay Thoring 8-5, Brent Gedak 8-7, Dave Wetsch 8-0 and Gamble 9-5. The win over Gedak knocked the Gedak rink out of the tournament.
Keating’s tournament ended in an 8-4 loss to Ackerman.
Third Chelsey Emberley, second Marcus Lau and lead Chantel Martin were also on Keating’s team.
Olson split his first two games, defeating another local rink Mike Keating 6-5, but then lost 11-0 to Kalthoff. Olson won four straight, defeating Thoring 7-3, Kit 4-3, Shawn Joyce 8-6 and Heather 8-7 to reach the B final.
Then he lost 6-2 to Hartung and 6-5 to St. Onge, ending his tournament.
Other members of the tournament were third Taylor Marcotte, second Allan Walter and lead Deanna Marcotte.
Gedak and his team of third Candace Chisholm, second Andrew McMillan and lead Janelle Gedak went 1-3 at the tournament. They lost 8-5 to Wetsch in the tournament opener.
Then they recovered to defeat Verbeem 7-1, but lost 5-4 to Englot and 8-7 to Kris Keating, ending their tournament.
The Mike Keating rink went 0-3. In addition to the loss to Olson, they lost 5-2 to Heather and 7-3 to Tyson Williamson.
Other members of the team were third Caitlyn Green, second Brent Giesbrecht and lead Abigail Lachambre-Renkas.
The provincial mixed tournament was the final event at the Power Dodge Curling Centre this season.
