Grassie, Loreth sweep to provincial berths

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Anthony Coombs

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Sean Grassie (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

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Ozana Nikolic

The Sean Grassie team from Deer Lodge and West Kildonan's Trevor Loreth team have earned berths in the 2013 Safeway Championship provincial men's curling championship.

Grassie and Loreth won their final games Monday at the Safeway Berth Bonspiel at Gimli Curling Club to earn entry.

The Safeway Championship will be held Feb. 6-10 at Neepawa's Yellowhead Arena. Grassie and Loreth join the previously qualified teams of Jeff Stoughton of Charleswood, Mike McEwen of Fort Rouge and defending champion Rob Fowler of Brandon.

Grassie's team was seeded second going into the 24-team event at Gimli. Grassie and his team of Corey Chambers, Kody Janzen and Stu Shiells defeated Granite's Scott Ramsay 8-7 in an extra end in one berth final.

"It was a really tough field here in Gimli with so many of the top Manitoba teams, so we're really happy to come away with one of those (provincial) berths," Grassie said. "It was a really tough game against Scott Ramsay... It was a 3 1/2-hour battle with lots of discussion and lots of rocks in play."

Loreth and his team of Braid Haight, Ryan Lowdon and Brett Cawson defeated the Jared Kolomaya team from Stonewall 6-5 in the other berth final.

-- AT the men's World Curling Tour's Cactus Pheasant Classic at Brooks, Alta., Winnipeg's Mike McEwen lost 6-5 in the final on Sunday to Kevin Koe of Alberta. McEwen took home a prize of $14,000. The Fowler and Stoughton teams lost in the quarter-finals and each earned $5,000.

-- ON Sunday at Winnipeg's Thistle Curling Club, the Chris Scalena team earned a provincial berth by reaching the semifinals of the 2012 Lloyd Gunnlaugson Memorial Senior Women's Bonspiel

Scalena lost to the Laurie Deprez team of Stonewall in the final 6-5, but Deprez had previously qualified as the defending champion. The two teams will compete in the Tim Horton's Senior Women's Provincial Championship Feb. 21-25 in Souris.

-- RUNNING back/kick returner Anthony Coombs of the University of Manitoba Bisons football team was named the Canada West conference Special Teams Football Athlete of the Week after the second-year player returned a punt for a 98-yard touchdown in Manitoba's 78-54 loss to the Dinos at Calgary. He also scored a rushing touchdown and a receiving touchdown.

The Bisons, ranked No. 10 in Canada, ended the regular season with a 4-4 record and will face the No. 3-ranked Dinos in a Canada West semifinal game on Saturday at Calgary's McMahon Stadium.

-- TIMOTHY (Te) Jessie, the 10-year-old son of former Winnipeg Blue Bomber Tim Jessie, scored five touchdowns and was named the offensive player of the game as he helped lead the East Side Eagles to the atom championship title on Sunday at Canad Inns Stadium.

East Side defeated the Charleswood Broncos 44-14 in the final as Football Manitoba held its annual Championship Weekend last Saturday and Sunday, where five age-group champions determined.

Winning the peewee title was the North Winnipeg Nomads, who beat the Charleswood Broncos 53-34. The St. Vital Mustangs won the bantam title with a 40-11 victory over the Valour Patriots while the North Winnipeg Nomads defeated the Eastman Raiders 42-21 to win the midget title and the East Side Eagles won the major title by beating the St. Vital Mustangs 34-24.

-- WESMEN women's volleyball player Ozana Nikolic and men's soccer player Tyson Farago were named the University of Winnipeg Wesmen Pizza Hotline Players of the Week.

Farago, the Wesmen goalkeeper, made nine saves in a 2-0 shutout of the defending CIS champion Victoria Vikes last Saturday in Victoria. Nikolic had a match-high 16 kills last Thursday when her team was swept in its regular-season opener by the Bisons 27-25, 25-19, 25-17.

-- ERIC PUSHKA, 19, of the Selkirk Steelers recorded eight points (1 goal, 7 assists) last week to earn the Manitoba Junior Hockey League's player-of-the-week honour. Pushka, a native of Dugald, helped the Steelers go on a three-game winning streak to sit second in the Addison Division.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 30, 2012 C6