Staff
It was about as crazy a swing in momentum as seen in a short curling series–and it happened twice.
A best-of-three final ended up going the way of Tory Beaudry and her Fort Frances rink of third Ashley Payne, second Katrina Slomke, and lead Andrea Schram as they edged Longlac’s Julianne Slattery 2-1 to win the U18 West region qualifier in Kakabeka Falls over the weekend.
Beaudry now advances to the U18 girls’ provincial championship Feb. 23-26 in Longlac.
Everything was falling Beaudry’s way in the opening match Saturday with an 8-2 win in just six ends.
But Slattery stormed back with a 10-3, six-end victory of her own that night to force the third-and-deciding game Sunday morning.
Beaudry got off to a quick start–taking a single in the first before stealing one in the second and two more in the third for a 4-0 lead.
Slattery got on the board with two in the fourth, but Beaudry scored one in the sixth and then stole another in the seventh to regain a four-point cushion.
A single for Slattery in the seventh gave the hammer back to Beaudry, who ran the Longlac rink out of rocks to seal the 6-3 triumph to clinch the series.
In the boys’ U18 qualifier, also held in Kakabeka Falls, Jordon Bazylewski of Fort Frances wound up finishing tied for third place at 1-4.
Bazylewski and his rink of third Ben Olson, second Kian McEvoy, and lead Brett Schram quickly found out how tough a field they were in when Myles Harding (Thunder Bay) cruised to a 9-0 victory in five ends.
Red Lake’s André Morin then got into an offensive showdown with Bazylewski before prevailing 12-8 thanks to a late-game meltdown by the Fort crew, which gave up seven points over the final two ends.
Bazylewski had rallied from a 5-1 deficit after three ends by scoring one in the fourth before nabbing back-to-back steals of three in the fifth and sixth to leap ahead 8-5.
But Morin refused to roll over–reclaiming the lead with four in the ninth and then a decisive steal of three in the 10th.
It was a different story in their next match as Connor Mangoff (Thunder Bay) romped to a 11-4 victory over Bazylewski.
Harding, who went on to win the boys’ title with a perfect 5-0 record, built a 5-0 lead against the locals.
Bazylewski tried to crawl back into the game with one in the fourth and a steal of two in the fifth to close within 5-3.
But Harding responded with two in the sixth, which prompted Bazylewski to shake hands.
Facing a winless weekend, Bazylewski’s rink steeled its resolve and came through with a 9-2 victory over Morin in five ends in their final game.
In other local curling news, Lorne Jackson will skip the Fort Frances entry at the upcoming Travelers Curling Club Region 1 playdowns in Keewatin from Feb. 17-19.
Jackson defeated Adam Bolen to claim the Travelers men’s title for the local club.
There were no women’s entries at the local club level.
