Staff
A pair of district curling products are fighting their way towards a possible winter excursion overseas to be part of the world’s largest international sporting event.
Devlin native Jenna Enge, playing second for Sudbury’s Tracy Horgan, and Tirzah Keffer of Fort Frances, the fifth for Thunder Bay’s Krista McCarville, are taking part in the Capital One “Road to the Roar” Olympic pre-trial tournament this week in Kitchener.
The top two finishers at the event on the women’s and men’s sides will advance to Tim Hortons “Roar of the Rings” Olympic trials Dec. 1-8 in Winnipeg—the final test to determine who will represent Canada at the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia in February.
Horgan’s rink opened with an 8-3 win over Edmonton’s Val Sweeting on Tuesday.
Horgan then lost a tough 10-6 extra-end decision to Laura Crocker of Edmonton yesterday to drop to the ‘B’ side, but bounced back last night with a 12-7 victory over Winnipeg’s Barb Spencer.
That put her into the ‘B’ quarter-finals this morning against 2006 Olympic bronze-medalist Shannon Kleibrink from Calgary.
Horgan jumped out to an early 6-1 lead after three ends before outlasting Kleibrink 10-7 to advance to the ‘B’ semi-finals tonight.
Horgan will play the loser of this afternoon’s ‘A’ final between 2007 world champion Kelly Scott of Kelowna, B.C. and two-time provincial champion Renee Sonnenberg of Grande Prairie, Alta.
Keffer, who skipped the Northern Ontario entry at the Canadian junior championships in Fort McMurray, Alta. back in February, joined the rest of McCarville’s foursome of Ashley Miharja, Kari Lavoie, and Sarah Potts after the skip announced in February she was taking the year off from curling to spend more time with her family and on her teaching career.
But the lure of an Olympic berth was too much for McCarville, who rejoined her team this fall—leaving Keffer to fill the role of fifth.
McCarville began the week with a tight 9-8 extra-end win over Crystal Webster of Calgary, then fell 6-5 earlier yesterday to reigning Olympic silver-medalist Cheryl Bernard from Calgary.
Then in last night’s ‘A’ semi-finals, McCarville fell 6-5 to Scott to drop into the ‘B’ quarter-finals this morning against Sweeting.
The Edmontonian held the lead four different times against McCarville, but watched McCarville fight back to tie the game each time to make it 7-7 after nine.
But there were no more comeback chances for McCarville after Sweeting chalked up a single in the 10th to emerge with an 8-7 decision.
The loss means a last-chance meeting in tonight’s ‘C’ quarter-finals against the loser of this afternoon’s ‘B’ quarter-final between Crocker and Cathy Auld of Mississauga.
Play continues tomorrow and Saturday, with the final set for Sunday afternoon.
