The Pepsi Provincial Junior Men’s and Junior Women’s Curling Championships, for curlers in the Under 21 age category, got underway Thursday evening at the Silver Fox Curling Club in Summerside, with four junior men’s and three junior women’s teams entered, playing ten-end games. There will be new champions this year as defending Junior champions the Lauren Ferguson junior women’s team from Cornwall, and the Tyler Smith foursome from the Charlottetown Curling Club are not back, as Ferguson is curling in Nova Scotia, while Smith has aged out of Juniors and competed as third stone on the winning PEI Tankard men’s team this year, skipped by Eddie MacKenzie.
The “A” Qualifiers in the modified triple knockout draw go at 9:30 am Friday, with last year’s finalist team, skipped by Rachel MacLean taking on Ella Lenentine in her U21 debut. Lenentine is the sister of reigning Canadian and World Junior champ Lauren Lenentine, who is making her Scotties debut this evening in Calgary (against Team Canada), so it’s a big day for the Lenentine family.
On the Junior men’s side, last year’s finalist team skipped by Mitchell Schut will be taking on Team Brayden Snow. All four “A” finalist teams are from the Cornwall Curling Club. MacLean and Schut recently won the U18s, while Snow was a finalist.
In opening draw junior women’s action on Thursday, MacLean stole 4 points in the 9th end in an 11-4 decision over clubmate Katie Shaw, while Lenentine drew the opening-draw bye.
The junior men’s openers saw Team Snow get by the host club’s Brock Rochford foursome with a four-point extra end and a 12-8 final score. Team Schut needed only seven ends to defeat their Isaiah Dalton-skipped clubmates 11-2.
The Team Snow and Team Schut Junior teams are live-streaming their games on their Facebook pages.
Teams in both divisions are playing modified triple knockout draws, where the winning team from each section also gets to compete in the next section. If a team wins all three sections, they will win the event without a championship round. If a team wins two sections, they will advance to a championship game against the winner of the other section and will take the championship if they win the game. If the other team wins, there will be a second championship game, with the winner of that game. If there are three separate section winners, the team that played in the most section finals will earn a bye to the second championship game where they will face the winner of a game between the other two finalists.
Live results from the Pepsi Junior championships are available at PEICurling.com.
No spectators are permitted due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Previous PEI Juniors Championship winners and websites are at: peicurling.com/pei-curling-history/history-menu/provincial-juniors-winners-and-past-event-websites/
Draw Charts
(will not be updated during event – refer to live scoring for draw progression)
Schedule
Explanation for MA/WA and MB/WB:
1. If one team wins all three qualifiers: Championship Round is not required.
2. If one team wins two qualifiers. They play in both MA/WA and MB/WB (and win the event if they win either game), the other winner plays in MA/WB (and has to win both games).
3. Three separate winners: the team that played in the most qualifying games* plays in MB/WB and the other winners play off in MA/WB. If there is a tie in number of qualifying games played, then the team that qualified earliest goes to MB/WB and the other two teams play off in MA/WA
*Qualifying games have a yellow border on the schedule
Team Rosters
Pepsi Juniors
| Junior Men’s Teams | Junior Women’s Teams |
| Team name: Isaiah Dalton Skip: Isaiah Dalton Third: Connor Bruce Second: Sheamus Herlihy Lead: Nate MacRae Coach: A.J. Campbell Club: Cornwall Curling Club | Team name: Ella Lenentine Skip: Ella Lenentine Third: Erika Pater Second: Kacey Gauthier Lead: Mollie Shaw Alternate: Makiya Noonan Coach: Robbie Lenentine Club: Cornwall Curling Club |
| Team name: Brock Rochford Skip: Brock Rochford Third: Keegan Warnell Second: Jack Chaisson Lead: Levi Driscoll Coach: Edward White Club: Silver Fox Curling Club | Team name: Rachel MacLean Skip: Rachel MacLean Third: Sydney Howatt Second: Amy Spence Lead: Avery Nicholson Coach: Carl Nicholson Club: Cornwall Curling Club |
| Team name: Mitchell Schut Skip: Mitchell Schut (throws 3rd) Third: Chase Macmillan (throws 4th) Second: Cruz Pineau Lead: Liam Kelly Coach: Pat Quilty Club: Cornwall Curling Club | Team name: Katie Shaw Skip: Katie Shaw Third: Lexie Murray Second: Alexis Burris Lead: Izzy Tatlock Alternate: Hayden Ford Coach: David Murphy Club: Cornwall Curling Club |
| Team name: Brayden Snow Skip: Brayden Snow Third: Jack MacFadyen Second: Liam Barbrick Lead: Davis Nicholson Coach: David MacFadyen Club: Cornwall Curling Club |