Two draws and the opening ceremonies took place today at the Pepsi Provincial Junior Curling Championships at the Montague Curling Club, and the junior men’s and women’s finalists for the first of three modified triple-knockout sections have been determined from the field of 5 junior men’s and 5 junior women’s teams. The “A” finals go at 9:30 am on Wednesday, with the Tyler Smith rink from the Charlottetown Curling Complex playing the Devin Schut team from Cornwall and Montague in the men’s section final, and the Kaleigh Mackay rink from Charlottetown and Montague playing the Lauren Lenentine foursome from Cornwall in the women’s “A” final.
Smith advanced with an 8-2 win over Leslie Noye, and his combined Western, Silver Fox and Cornwall team, while Schut doubled Dylan Lowery and his Montague and Silver Fox team 6-3. Mackay doubled Cornwall’s Lauren Ferguson team 12-6, while Lenentine beat Cornwall clubmate Meghan Ching 7-4 to advance.
With the “modified” triple knockout format, teams that win the A or B sections drop down to compete in the next sections, with the section winners advancing to a two-game championship round on Friday. If a team wins all three sections, they take the championship immediately. If a team wins two sections, they have a “double life” in the two game championship round on Thursday, and win the title if they take either game, while their opponent, the other section winner, would have to win both.
The “B” finals go Wednesday at 6:30 pm, with the C finals taking place Thursday at 3:30 pm.
Live end-by-end results will be available at: peicurling.com/scoreboard/#!/competitions/2185 and on the main page of PEICurling.com.
Admission to watch the games: $3.00 per draw, or buy a Full Event Pass for $20.
The opening ceremonies took place between today’s two draws, with the teams marching in to bagpipe music, and Master of Ceremonies – Montague Club president Scott Annear introducing a number of guests, including representatives from the Town, Curl PEI, and area Member of Parliament Lawrence MacAulay.
This year’s winners advance to the 2017 Canadian Junior (Under 21) Men’s and Women’s Curling Championships, Jan. 21-29 at the Archie Browning Sports Centre in Esquimalt (a suburb of Victoria) BC, using the facility’s hockey arena and six-sheet curling rink to decide which teams will represent Canada at the 2017 World Junior Curling Championships in Pyeongchang, South Korea.