Staff
Local skip Isaac Keffer is taking the short way to Longlac.
Keffer and his team of third Cody Ossachuk, second Cody Heyens, and lead Ian Grant finished with a 3-1 record at the Bantam boys’ inter-region 1-2 playdowns at the Port Arthur Curling Club over the weekend to earn the second berth to the provincials Feb. 4-7.
The top three teams from there will advance to the Ontario Winter Games slated March 3-7 in Gravenhurst.
Keffer opened the inter-region playdowns with an 8-3 drubbing of Jason Pontynen (Port Arthur), highlighted by a four-ender in the sixth.
The locals then improved to 2-0 with a 9-2 pounding of Jesse Lock (Sioux Lookout).
The team suffered its only loss at the hands of first-place finisher Jordan Potter (Port Arthur), dropping a 5-3 decision.
Potter’s steal of two in the sixth to bust open a tight 3-2 game made the difference as Keffer could only respond with a single in the seventh.
But Keffer rebounded in his final match, edging Joshua Szajewski (Keewatin) 5-3 on Sunday morning to advance to Longlac.
Samantha Mueller of Fort Frances, meanwhile, posted a 1-3 record on the girls’ side of the regional playdowns.
Mueller and her rink of third Carley Busch, second Karleigh Wright, and lead Taylor Hartlin lost their first three games before rebounding in their last one.
They started with a 12-3 loss to Katie Nelligan (Port Arthur), who put up four in the first end and didn’t look back.
Mueller was a bit closer in her next game against Grace Esquega (Port Arthur), falling 7-3.
The local skip again allowed four in the first in falling 10-4 to Kaitlyn Poirier (Sioux Lookout).
Mueller got into the win column with a 13-0 whitewashing of Myan Miller (Stratton) on Sunday morning.
Esquega (4-0) and Poirier (3-1) earned the provincial berths in Longlac.
In other curling news, Fort Frances skip Wayne Beacham put up a 2-3 mark at the men’s Region 1 playdowns in Red Lake.
Beacham and his rink of third Adam Bolen, second Craig Armstrong, and lead Grant Swire had both hot and cold streaks all weekend.
The rink lost a hard-fought 8-7 decision to Trevor Bonot (Stratton) after Beacham only could manage a deuce in the final end to fall just short.
Beacham then was hammered 9-2 by Ken Anderson (Red Lake) thanks to a five-ender in the sixth.
The rink got into the win column in its next game, waxing John Cummine (Sioux Lookout) 11-4 on the strength of five stolen points by Beacham.
Then they evened their record at 2-2 by downing Chris Globush (Red Lake) 9-6 thanks to deuces in both the sixth and eighth ends.
But Beacham finished the playdowns with an 8-2 defeat to Tim Nordin (Rainy River) after Nordin stole one in the sixth and three more in the seventh to seal it.
Nordin later defeated Anderson 7-5 on Sunday afternoon to advance to the West qualifier Jan. 29-31 in Marathon.
The men’s provincials are slated Feb. 9-14 in Sudbury, with the Tim Hortons Brier going March 6-14 in Halifax.
The worlds will be held April 3-11 in Cortina, Italy.
