U18 nationals
Rinks skipped by Nathan Molberg and Julia Bakos of St. Albert were among the leaders in their respective pools before the round robin ended Friday at the Curling Canada U18 nationals in Sherwood Park.
The Team Alberta foursome of third Ben Helston, second Nick Warkman, lead Morgan Bilassy and coach Nicole Bellamy stood first in pool B at 4-1 with one game left against the Alberta host team (1-4) skipped by Cortland Sonnenberg of Sexsmith/Grande Prairie.
At last month’s U18 provincials, Team Molberg beat Team Sonnenberg 6-3 in the final.
The Alberta host team of Bakos, third Quinn Prodaniuk, second Kim Bonneau, lead Julianna MacKenzie and coach Blair Lenton of the Crestwood shared first place in pool A with Northern Ontario and Prince Edward Island at 3-1 before playing P.E.I. and Saskatchewan (2-2).
Friday’s round robin scores were unavailable at press time.
The 14-team male and female tournaments are split into two pools and the top four teams in each of the pools qualified for today’s double-knockout championship round to determine Sunday’s playoff pairings at 9 a.m. for the semifinals and 1 p.m. for the finals at Glen Allan Recreation Complex.
Visit www.curling.ca for draw times and results at nationals.
The only losses in pool play were 6-5 for Team Molberg against New Brunswick (3-1) as the Moncton rink stole singles in the sixth, seventh and eight ends, and 7-6 for Team Bakos against Ontario (2-2) as the Manotick rink scored two in eight for the victory.
Team Bakos qualified for nationals as the second-place finisher at U18 provincials as Jessica Wytrychowski of Airdrie counted the winning point in the last end for the 3-2 decision.
In pool B, Team Alberta and Manitoba were tied for first at 4-1 with one round-game remaining.
City championships
The 56th annual Edmonton and area Tournament of Champions is underway at the Granite for rinks skipped by Dale Briske, Kathy Piper and Ferd Caron as the President’s Cup playoff winners at St. Albert Curling Club.
The double-knockout format consists of the 2019 club champions in the metro Edmonton region in the 12-team men’s, women’s and mixed divisions.
The semifinals for the two A qualifiers and two B qualifiers are 5 p.m. Sunday and the finals are 7 p.m. Monday.
Cities started Friday night for all three St. Albert rinks.
The Briske team of Gary Greening, Rick Dallyn and Grant Cook played the Granite, the Piper team of Susan Crush, Diana Backer and Laurie Conrad faced Jasper Place and the Caron team of Kim Zsakai, Neil McKay and Rica Caron took on the Avonair.
Scores were unavailable at press time.
Today’s draw times are 9 a.m. and 1 and 5 p.m.
Games are also scheduled Sunday at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. leading up to the semifinals.
Visit www.edmontoncurling.ca/city-play-downs for results.
Last year the St. Albert rinks of Briske, Lauren Atkinson in women’s and Jason Tuininga in mixed lost their respective city finals at the Granite.
Briske and Piper are previous President’s Cup and city champions while Caron, a longtime St. Albert curler, pulled off a rare victory for club honours.
The winners of the Manager’s Cup in the St. Albert playoffs were Team Schoenberger – Michael Schoenberger, Paul Retz, David Retz, Ray Rouault and Kelly Black in men’s; Team Lindsey – Audra Lindsey, Marg Convey, Eve Crowston and Eileen Vilks in women’s; and Team Pudlowski – Kent Pudlowski, Sandra Casson, Tim Donnelly and Nancy Love in mixed.
