FORT FRANCES—The Fort Frances Curling Club’s junior program enjoyed its best-ever showing at the Northwestern Ontario Curling Association’s district playdowns over the weekend in Longlac.
Both the junior men’s and women’s rinks finished second in their respective divisions, which allowed them to advance to the provincial showdown coming up this weekend (Jan. 11-13) in Sault Ste. Marie.
Skip Jenna Enge’s rink—comprised of third Megan Moate, second Tirzah Keffer, and leads Kathleen Murray and Samantha Mueller—also earned the distinction of being the first junior women’s rink from this district to ever qualify for the provincial playdowns.
The accomplishment was particularly impressive given the relatively young age of the team. Although Enge and Moate are both 18 years old, Keffer recently turned 15 while both Murray and Mueller are still in Grade 8.
“These girls are very young,” junior women’s coach Dave Bondett remarked. “You can play up to the age of 21 in junior curling, so several of the teams have older, experienced curlers.”
Meanwhile, the junior men—comprised of skip Adam Bolen, third David Kaun, second Mike Badiuk, and leads Sean Murray and Travis Showalter—are the first district rink to qualify for the provincials in nearly 20 years.
“I think the last men’s team to go was around 1988 and that would have been the Jackson boys,” junior men’s coach Tom Fry said.
“It’s unbelievable to do that [qualify for provincials] this year.”
The junior men set the tone for the weekend by picking up a pair of victories on the opening day of the playdowns last Thursday.
Bolen’s rink first defeated Andrew McMillan (Sioux Lookout) 8-4 and then earned a hard-fought 7-6 win over Jeff Sargent (Port Arthur) in the second draw.
“The first day they played just awesome and got the first two wins under their belts,” Fry enthused.
“It looked at that point, at least I thought, that we had a spot sewed up almost, especially after knocking off the number-one team [Port Arthur] on Day One.”
But the rink’s provincial aspirations suffered a major blow the following day when they dropped back-to-back games. They played poorly en route to a 10-5 loss to Marathon and suffered some bad luck in a 8-7 setback to Geraldton.
“Their skip made some great freezes to bail them out,” Fry said of Geraldton. “It went into an extra end and our skip’s last rock picked a piece of debris and went astray, and we missed the shot.
“As a result, they won the game.”
The losses meant Bolen’s rink had to defeat Eric Theriault’s previously undefeated Fort William rink in their final draw in order to force a one-game playoff with Port Arthur for the final provincial berth.
Against all odds, Bolen won a decisive 6-2 victory over Theriault and then dispatched of Sargent 8-3 in the playoff to earn second place and a trip to Sault Ste. Marie.
“The boys went out and played probably two of the best back-to-back games I’ve seen in junior curling,” Fry remarked. “They just totally dominated.”
Meanwhile, the local junior women matched their male counterparts by earning a win in their opening game of the double round-robin format late Thursday afternoon—a decisive 9-3 victory over Courtney Lennon (Longlac).
“We beat them reasonably comfortably the first game out,” Bondett said. “I think there were nerves on the line there. They probably didn’t have their best game.”
Later that night, though, Enge fell 10-2 to Ashley Miharija (Fort William).
“The Fort William team is a pretty experienced group,” Bondett noted. “They are a pretty talented group. They’ve been around curling a long time and have been to a lot of these things.”
But Enge rebounded nicely the following morning with a 12-2 blowout of their own over Nicole Westlund (Port Arthur).
“We matched up very well against Port Arthur,” remarked Bondett. “They are a little bit younger, a little bit less experienced, but they are still very good curlers.”
However, the roller-coaster ride would continue as Longlac avenged their earlier loss to Fort Frances with a 10-3 victory.
“They came back and handed us one the second game,” Bondett said. “We didn’t play quite so well.”
Another lopsided defeat at the hands of Fort William—this time by a score of 10-3—meant Enge’s rink had to beat Port Arthur if they were to claim second place and the final berth to the provincials.
But as was the case with the men’s team, the junior women did not disappoint—earning a 7-6 comeback victory thanks largely to some spectacular shot-making by Enge.
“Jenna made two or three really clutch shots to keep us in the game,” Bondett recalled. “I thought we had control of the game but if you miss the really key important shots, you can end up on the short end really quick.
“She [Enge] performed really well.”
The provincial playdowns open Jan. 11 with both local rinks taking on Fort William at 11:30 p.m. (CST).
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
