Both the Tyler Smith junior men’s rink from the Charlottetown Curling Club, and the Lauren Lenentine junior women’s team from the Cornwall Curling Club continued their winning ways this afternoon, going undefeated and sweeping all three sections of the Modified Triple Knockout draw to win the Pepsi Provincial Junior Curling Championships, without having to play the two game championship round that was scheduled for Friday.
The Smith rink, which includes third Christopher Gallant, second stone Noah O’Connor, and lead Brooks Roche, with coaches Peter Gallant and Kevin Smith, won their first section final on Wednesday morning, 10-4 over Cornwall’s Devin Schut rink, their second on Wednesday evening, also against the Schut team, by a 7-3 score, and their third this afternoon, with a 6-0 shutout over the Dylan Lowery squad from Montague and Summerside. The Schut team, which includes third stone Owen Collier, second Tyler Garnhum, and lead Alec Huestis, with coach David Parker are awarded the runner-up position, as they competed in the first two of the three section finals. Lowery stole a deuce in the extra end to get by Schut in the “C” semi-final this morning and advance to “C” final. The rules state that if a team that sweeps all three knockout sections, a championship round is not required, so Smith takes the title.
Junior Men’s winners (L-R): Tyler Smith, Christopher Gallant, Noah O’Connor, Brooks Roche, coach Peter Gallant
Junior Men’s runners-up (L-R): Devin Schut, Owen Collier, Tyler Garnhum, Alec Huestis, coach David Parker
Team Lenentine, with third stone Kristie Rogers, second Breanne Burgoyne, and lead Rachel O’Connor, with coach Pat Quilty, beat the Kaleigh Mackay team from Charlottetown and Montague 9-4 in the “A” final, 9-5 in the B, and 9-5 as well in the “C” event, eliminating the need for a championship round. Other members of the runner-up Mackay foursome are third Danielle Collings, second Alyssa Wright, and lead stone Kaleigh Peters, with coach Tammy Dewar.
Mackay stole the last end to win the “C” event semi-final this morning, 8-7 over the young Lauren Ferguson rink from Cornwall, who finished with an impressive 3-3 record in their first Pepsi Juniors.
Junior Women’s winners (L-R): Lauren Lenentine, Kristie Rogers, Breanne Burgoyne, Rachel O’Connor, coach Pat Quilty
Junior Women’s runners-up (L-R): Kaleigh Mackay, Danielle Collings, Alyssa Wright, Kaleigh Peters, coach Tammy Dewar
This year’s winners, teams Smith and Lenentine, 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.
Ten teams – 5 junior men’s and 5 junior women’s took part in this year’s PEI championship, for curlers under age 21.
Linescores from the provincial event are available at PEICurling.com.