Kraichy passes with flying colours

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This article was published 18/01/2010 (6028 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

School took David Kraichy away from curling for two years, but he passed a daunting test this weekend in his first season back. And it enrolled him into next month’s men’s provincial championship.

Kraichy edged No. 2 seed Peter Nicholls 5-4 in an extra end in a zone final at West Kildonan Sunday, a day after stealing a point on Nicholls in an extra end to stay alive on the B side.

Earlier Sunday, Kraichy won the B side of his zone by beating Victoria’s Dan Dixon 5-2.

"It wasn’t looking good earlier in the week after we lost that A-side semi (to Neil Okumura), but we pulled together and played a lot better," said Kraichy, who is 3-0 against Nicholls this year after also beating him in the southern berth bonspiel.

Kraichy, who lost the 2004 Manitoba junior final to Daley Peters, had been in Calgary for two years to earn a masters degree in industrial and organizational psychology. He moved back home in September to take his Ph.D in human resource management at the Asper School of Business.

"I threw about 10 (to) 12 rocks those two years," said Kraichy, who is supported by Jim Coleman, Rylan Young and Brad Van Walleghem. "I spared a game when I was in town (Winnipeg) and that was it. I didn’t touch the ice in Calgary."

Kraichy’s timetable now includes a trip to the Safeway Championship, Feb. 10-14, in Steinbach.

Also winning their city zones Sunday were Assinboine Memorial’s Kerry Burtnyk, Granite’s Bob Sigurdson, Deer Lodge’s Sean Grassie and West Kildonan’s Brendan Taylor, Andrew Wickman and Dave Elias.

Wickman beat Vic Peters twice, 7-2 in their B-final and 8-3 in their A-B final, to qualify for his third Safeway Championship, but first since 2004.

And he’s happy for his second, Ken Buchanan, who is going to his first men’s provincials.

"I promised Kenny when I first met him three years ago that in three years I would take him to the Select," said Wickman, who is also supported by Kyle Foster and Keith Doherty. "Afterward, he was pretty excited about it."

Wickman needed five straight wins after dropping his opener 6-0 to Victoria’s Jim Conacher.

"Once you lose your first one — Conacher played great and they’re a great team — you got to take one game at a time and one shot at a time," said Wickman.

Burtnyk and Elias were the only teams to go undefeated.

In their B-side finals Sunday, Burtnyk clipped Dave Smith of St. Vital 9-8 and Elias beat Victoria’s Collin Sundell 8-4.

In the three other A-B finals, Sigurdson beat Gord Green of Charleswood 4-1, Grassie edged clubmate Mike Mahon 8-7 and Taylor got past West Kildonan’s Larry Dreger 8-3.

Taylor won his city zone as a skip for the third straight year.

"We were steady," said Taylor, who lost to Dreger Sunday morning. "We didn’t miss the wrong way and I commend Larry Dreger’s team. They played phenomenal the last two games we played them."

Among the rural zone winners declared yesterday were Jason Gunnlaugson (Beausejour), Randy Dutiaume (Stony Mountain), Allan Lyburn (Brandon), Terry McNamee (Hamiota), Randy Neufeld (La Salle) and Brent Scales (Swan River).

Also Sunday, Kerri Flett beat Chelsea Carey 9-1 in the competitive-side final of Curl Manitoba’s annual women’s bonspiel. The win qualifies Flett’s Fort Rouge team for next year’s provincial Scotties in Altona.

sean.grassie@freepress.mb.ca