Daigle, Barry claim jr. curling crowns

Jessica Daigle and Josh Barry came into Wednesday’s final day at the Lounsbury Provincial Junior Curling Championships needing two wins for the title.

Both teams then took the ice and won their games and the championships – Daigle by beating Capital Winter Club sides Cathlia Ward 10-7 and Ashley Howard 4-3, and Barry by beating Jon Rennie twice, 8-3 and 10-5.

Team Barry receiving its yellow Team New Brunswick jackets. From left to right, coach Kevin Kyle, mate Chris Sleep, second Blake Hunter, and lead Alex Kyle. Not pictured is skip Josh Barry. (Picture by Terry Sleep.)

With their New Brunswick championships, both rinks will represent the province in the Canadian Junior Curling Championships from Jan. 16-24 in Sorel-Tracy, Que.

Daigle’s victory came in dramatic style. With the game tied at three and Howard sitting one in the four-foot, Daigle made a cold draw to the button with her final shot in the tenth end to take the victory.

Afterwards, Daigle, from Thistle-St. Andrews in Saint John, said that she expected the game to come down to the last shot.

“We knew it would come down to the last shot,” she said, adding that her team did its best to mentally prepare for the possibility. “You put in your mindset what you’re going to do and you do it.”

Howard, the 2008-09 champion, used her last shot to guard against a possible raise. Her coach, Felipe Garcia, thought that a play in her last game, against, a 9-8 loss to Ward Wednesday morning, played a role in her decision.

“She guarded against the draw against Ward and she made a raise to win the game,” he said. Daigle’s reputation as a hitting team may have also had a role in her decision, he said.

“The funny thing is, we made all our shots in the last end, Daigle’s team missed her peels, and we still lost.”

Team Daigle receiving its medals and jackets. From left to right, Jade Carruthers, Krista Flanagan, Natalie Menzies, and Jessica Daigle. (Photo by Terry Sleep.)

Daigle’s team of mate Natalie Menzies, second Krista Flanagan, lead Jade Carruthers, and coach Allan Menzies, qualified for the final with a win over Ward. Up 7-5 without hammer in the tenth, Ward tried a freeze against four Daigle stones. Ward’s stone was good enough to sit shot, but open to be hit. Daigle made the hit the score five points and the win.

The mens’ final wasn’t as close. Barry, from the Fredericton and Riverside Curling Clubs, took a 5-1 lead after five ends and let the game fall into a pattern after the break. Rennie (Riverside) would draw to the four-foot and put up guards and Barry would try to peel the guards away as soon he could.

Barry hoped to force Rennie’s team into making mistakes with his guards, but they weren’t making very many.

“They were making some great guards,” he said. “They hardly missed. But we tried to capitalize on their misses and then we tried to get a couple on our last.”

It went very poorly for Rennie in the eighth end. Mate Andrew MacRae’s guard unfortunately lined up with his team’s shot stone, allowing Barry’s mate, Chris Sleep, to make a run-back take out. Rennie tried two draws, but both were slightly heavy.

Barry then made two clutch shots – a raise-take-out with his first stone, and a very gentle take-out on his last shot. Both rocks stuck around the house and Barry scored three to clinch the win and the title 10-5.

Wednesday afternoon, Barry stole the first three ends against Rennie, taking the last two after Rennie missed both his draws in the third end. Rennie was able to trade points with Barry until the eighth, when the 2008 champion’s draw was came up short. Barry drew for two and an 8-3 win.

Barry said the win helped his team that evening.

“It gave us a confidence boost,” he said, “not just beating them, but playing well as a team.”

Rennie did win his first game of the day against Dmitri Makrides (Fredericton), but he needed an extra end to do it. Makrides did have a chance to win the game in the tenth, but fourth Kelly Harris lost the shooter on his last hit, scoring only one point. Rennie was able to draw for 1 in the eleventh for an 8-7 victory.

Barry said he was “very excited” about going to Nationals with his team of Sleep, second Blake Hunter, lead Alex Kyle, and coach Kevin Kyle. “I still can’t believe it,” he said.

“Even through two early losses, we still stuck together, we still pulled through.”

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Posted by Sean Thompson on Dec 31, 2009. Filed under News, This Week's Edition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.