Defending champs off to jr. curling finals

A day of upsets and high drama at the Lounsbury Provincial Junior Curling Championships ended with both defending champions clinching spots in the finals.

Despite suffering their first losses, Ashley Howard and Jon Rennie both came back to win later on Tuesday to secure their finals berths.

Jessica Daigle (left) watches the line of the stone Krista Flanagan and Jade Carruthers escort towards the house. (Photo by Sean Thompson.)

Howard, from Fredericton’s Capital Winter Club, lost 5-3 in her morning draw against Brittani Jeans of the Gage Curling Club and needed an extra end to beat the Fredericton Curling Club’s Kaleigh Barry 11-8 in the afternoon before cruising to an 8-3 victory of Jessica Daigle (Thistle-St. Andrews) Tuesday evening.

Rennie, from the Riverside Curling Club in Rothesay, played two 11-end games, losing 8-7 to Josh Barry (Fredericton/Riverside) in the afternoon but beating Andrew Trites (Sackville) 9-8 in the evening.

Rennie started strong against Trites, making nearly all of his draws and jumping out to a 6-3 lead after five ends. But after holding the Sackville side to one in the sixth, the wheels of Rennie’s bus came loose. A light draw allowed Trites to steal one in the seventh and a pick on Rennie’s last shot in the eighth gave Trites a steal of three.

The Rennie team making a take-out: Jon Rennie shooting, Andrew Perrin and Tyler Milligan sweeping, and Chris MacRae calling the line. (Photo by Sean Thompson.)

But Trites let his lead slip away. After conceding one to Rennie, Trites let the Riverside team tie the game at eight with a stolen point in the tenth. With the last shot in the eleventh, Trites, needing to draw to the four-foot to win, didn’t even reach the house, letting Rennie (5-1) steal the game. The loss eliminated Trites (2-3).

In his afternoon draw, Rennie again jumped out to an early lead, 4-0 after three ends. Barry, though, clawed back, taking two in the fifth, holding Rennie to one in the sixth, and taking five in the next three ends – stealing points in the eighth and ninth. After Rennie took two in the tenth to force an extra end, Barry calmly made a draw on his last stone to take one point and the game.

But Barry (4-2) suffered a loss of his own Tuesday evening against Dmitri Makrides (Fredericton). Makrides’s fourth, Kelly Harris, made a draw for three in the first end from which Barry never seemed to recover. He came up short with a draw in the second, letting Makrides steal another point en route to a 7-4 win.

Earlier that afternoon, Makrides (3-2) eliminated Riverside’s Josh Pye (2-3) 6-4, while Trites knocked out Evan MacKnight (Capital, 2-3) 5-4.

Ladies’ play

Howard used steals to defeat Daigle Tuesday evening, taking three points from the first three ends without having last rock. Even though the Saint John foursome came narrowed the gap to 5-3, Daigle flashed her final rock in the eighth end, letting the defending champs draw for two. Howard stole another point in the ninth to clinch the game and a spot in the finals.

In the afternoon draw, Howard found herself trailing Kaleigh Barry 6-5 after missing a draw in the eighth end. The defending champion took three in the ninth after making a raise, but the Fredericton rink  got two points to force an extra end after a tricky in-off take-out. It was so close, a measurement had to be taken to confirm the second point. In the eleventh, though, Howard made an easy hit for three, winning the game and knocking Barry (1-3) out.

Brittani Jeans tells mate Leah Thompson where to hold the broom for the first skip stone. (Photo by Sean Thompson.)

Tuesday morning, Howard (5-1) suffered her only loss of the event so far. Jeans refused to let the Capital four take any more than a point an end, crucially forcing her to take one in the ninth end. The Gage rink ran Howard out of rocks in the tenth to secure a 5-3 victory.

Victory would be fleeting for the Jeans side, however, as Daigle proved. The Thistle team chalked up 3 points in the first end and kept Jeans off-stride the rest of the way with plenty of guards to block the front of the house. Daigle (4-2) put the game out of reach with a hit for another 3 in the seventh end en route to a 9-5 win.

Jeans had a closer contest against Cathlia Ward (Capital) that evening. With the game tied at five in the ninth, Jeans came up short on her last draw to give Ward a point and the lead. After making a hit and stick to tie in the tenth, Jeans needed a stong end from her front three to have a chance to stay alive.

She didn’t get it.

Ward’s front end of Katie Forward, Katelyn Kelly, and Jane DiCarlo curled perfectly, forcing Jeans’ side to make tough to impossible shots. Jeans’s own last-chance takeout crashed harmlessly on a guard, allowing Ward (4-2) to take three and a 9-6 victory.

Jeans (2-3) was eliminated.

In other ladies’ action Tuesday, Barry knocked out Sarah Ronalds (Beausejour, 1-3) 9-7, Daigle beat Ward 5-3, and Jessica Armstrong (Riverside, 2-3) eliminated Tyler Parmiter (Gage, 0-3) 9-4 before getting eliminated by Ward 9-8 in 11 ends.

Wednesday’s Schedule

Wednesday’s play opens at 9:00 AM with two games: Rennie vs. Makrides on the mens’ side and Howard vs. Ward in the ladies’ draw. The winners play again at 2:00 – the mens’ winner playing Josh Barry and the ladies’ winner meeting Daigle.

If Rennie or Howard win both their games, then they win the championship. If someone other than Rennie or Howard win at 2:00, a final draw at 7:00 will settle the tournament. If necessary, Rennie and Howard would play the 2:00 winners in that draw.

The New Brunswick Beacon will be live-blogging all of Wednesday’s action from Curling Beausejour in Moncton beginning at 9:00 AM.

Tomorrow’s champions will represent New Brunswick at January’s Canadian Junior Curling Championships in Sorel-Tracy, Que.

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Posted by Sean Thompson on Dec 30, 2009. Filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.