Reigning World Junior Women’s champs, including PEI’s Lauren Lenentine, appear to be Scotties-bound (Winnipeg Sun)

The reigning World Junior champs, skipped by MacKenzie Zacharias and including New Dominion PEI native Lauren Lenentine appear to be headed to the national Scotties. Here’s the details from Ted Wyman in the Winnipeg Sun:

Zacharias and her teammates currently sit 11^th on the CTRS rankings. All but two of the teams ahead of them are already in the 18-team field for the Scotties or are ineligible.

Manitoba’s Tracy Fleury will get the first wild card spot and the second will go to Zacharias, unless No. 9 Suzanne Birt loses the Prince Edward Island provincial championship. Even if Birt does lose, which would be unexpected, Zacharias would be in the Scotties as the third wild card team.

If Birt loses P.E.I., she would still get in as the second wild card team, but if she wins, that spot will go to Beth Peterson of Winnipeg, who is 12^th in the CTRS rankings.

2020 world junior women’s champion Mackenzie Zacharias (far right) of Altona, Man., and her teammates [including PEI’s Lauren Lenentine, 3rd from left] appear headed to the Scotties as one of the wild card teams. PHOTO BY WORLD CURLING FEDERATION/RICHARD GRAY

Zacharias: “In Manitoba, we have three of the top teams in the world that come from our province (Kerri Einarson, Jennifer Jones and Fleury) For our team, being so young, to get this opportunity to go to the Scotties and play against these incredible national teams, we’re gonna gain so much experience. We honestly don’t know the next time we’re gonna get back there because it’s so tough to get out of Manitoba with so many great teams here.”

Manitoba could have five teams in the Scotties, which will be played in a bubble in Calgary in late February.

Click for the full story in the Winnipeg Sun