Lucas Punkari
A year ago, Zacharia Warkentin played the role of second on Jordan Potter’s Port Arthur Curling Club rink (Thunder Bay) that went unbeaten en route to capturing the Northern Ontario Bantam boys’ title.
This past weekend at the Fort Frances Curling Club, the 16-year-old was skip as he looked to defend his title, which he accomplished with relative ease by going 7-0 during round-robin play to finish in first place.
“It’s pretty amazing to do it once again,” Warkentin smiled after a 7-4 win over Kevin Gravel (Smooth Rock Falls) in the final draw Sunday morning.
“Coming back as a skip this time around was a big change for me, especially after being a second last year, but it all worked out just fine,” he added.
Warkentin, who was joined by third William Perozak, second Mackenzie Joblin, lead Ryan McClendon, and fifth Aleks Augruso, seemed to be getting better and better as the event unfolded—and already had clinched top spot by Saturday afternoon.
“That made things a little bit easier for us,” he admitted.
“But at the same time, our coach [Don Main] made sure to keep pushing us to finish unbeaten as he wanted us to keep playing at our best throughout the entire weekend.”
When asked to pick which game he was most proud of during the weekend, Warkentin cited his 6-4 win over Scott Morphet (Sault Ste. Marie) on Friday morning, when he scored two points in the eighth and final end to take the win.
“That was the first time I ever had to sit in the hack and throw the last rock as a skip and know that if I missed the shot, we were going to lose,” he recalled.
“I know that was the most nerve-shaking game for us all weekend long.”
Thanks to their first-place showing, Warkentin also qualified for next month’s Ontario Winter Games, which will take place March 8-11 in Collingwood.
“I’m just so excited to head down there, and especially to play against the Southern Ontario teams,” he enthused.
“We’re going to be working on everything during our practices over the next few weeks, and while it might make for some long days, it will be worth it,” Warkentin added.
Joining Warkentin at the Games will be Morphet and Sudbury’s Tanner Horgan, who nabbed the other two qualifying berths with identical 5-2 records.
Morphet earned his spot thanks to a 6-4 win Brandon Dowhaniuk (Kakabeka Falls) in the final round-robin draw Sunday morning.
“We had a bit of a weak sleep last night [Saturday], but we came into this game feeling pretty confident and we were able to come out on top,” the 17-year-old smiled.
“To earn a spot at the Ontario Winter Games is a great feeling as this was our goal from the start of the year, and we all worked really hard to accomplish it,” he added.
As for Horgan, the younger brother of Ontario Scotties champs Tracy Horgan and Jennifer Seabrook, the 13-year-old captured the final berth for the Ontario Winter Games by making a take-out with his final stone to defeat North Bay’s Connor Lawes 5-3.
“We knew going in that it was a winner-take-all game, so we had to come out focused right off the start,” stressed Horgan.
“When they got their deuce in the seventh end, that gave us a little bit of a scare there as if you make one miss in the last end, it could be all over,” he reasoned.
“He was lying two in the house and we just had to take out one rock to win.
“But the rock that he drew into the top 12-foot was really close to ours, and if it had been closer that would of made things really interesting,” added Horgan, who also competed at the 2010 Ontario Winter Games.
The completion of Sunday morning’s draw also saw a wide smile on the face of Stratton’s Matthew Armstrong, who finished off his 1-6 weekend with a convincing 7-1 triumph over Austin Trottier (Geraldton).
“That was, by far, the best game we played in the entire event,” said the 16-year-old.
“I called the game well and everyone made their shots, including some of the best ones that we had made thus far.”
After being throttled in their first two games by a combined score of 24-3, Armstrong and his rink of third RJ McDonald, second Jake Vandenbrand, and lead Cody Armstrong picked up their game over the rest of the weekend.
“I think as the event went on, we started to get a little bit better game by game,” Armstrong noted.
“We learned a little bit from each of the skips we were facing, as well, as we paid a lot of attention as to where they were putting the broom because where we come from, our ice is a little bit heavier so we had to adjust to that.
“But overall, it was a great experience for us and I think it will help us out a lot going forward, especially in our high school play,” added Armstrong, who skips the mixed team at Rainy River High School.
Elsewhere on the weekend, Jessica Haw of Stratton was in Longlac to compete in the Bantam girls’ playdowns but ended up finishing at the bottom of the eight-rink field with a 1-6 record.
Haw, who curled with third Maria Vandenbrand, second Elyssa Hughes, and lead Nicole Hartlin, earned her lone win Friday night with a 7-4 triumph over Jessica Poliquin (Longlac).
Leah Hodgson (Sault Ste. Marie), Sarah-Anne Guay (Kapuskasing), and Krysta Burns (Sudbury) earned the three berths up for grabs to the Ontario Winter Games.
