Staff
The road to the OFSAA curling championships will run through Fort Frances–twice.
First, the NorWOSSA finals get underway Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Fort Frances Curling Club
The Muskie girls’, boys’, and mixed rinks all have a bye in the opening draw before taking on the Atikokan Voyageurs at 2 p.m. and then the Sioux Lookout Warriors at 6 p.m.
Monday’s draws will be at 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., with any tie-breakers taking place at 3 p.m.
The top two teams in each division will advance to the NWOSSAA championships, which also will be held here Feb. 27-28.
Muskie boys’ skip Chris Silver is expected to be back from a hamstring injury that kept him out of the NorWOSSA qualifier in Sioux Lookout two weeks ago.
Silver and his rink of third Daniel Vandenbrand, second Jason Bazylewski, lead Davis Jackson, and fifth Owen Riches will be heavy favourites to advance as the first four in that group are the defending NorWOSSA and NWOSSAA champs who then captured silver at OFSAA last year.
The girls’ team skipped by Tory Beaudry also should be welcoming back a wounded warrior after third Anika Beaudry missed the qualifier with a wrist injury.
The cousins, along with second Katrina Slomke and co-leads Andrea Schram and Ashley Payne, will be gunning to get the rink back to the all-Ontarios for a second-straight year.
Meanwhile, it’s a big weekend for more than one reason for the Muskie mixed rink of skip Jordon Bazylewski, third Mackenzie Taylor, co-seconds Ben Olson and Macarthur Wilde, and lead Sammy Stone.
The quintet have a shot at being one of the first two NorWOSSA teams to vie for an NWOSSAA title as the mixed division will be contested at that level for the first time.
