Chasing a championship

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/12/2011 (5279 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The best thing for Chelsea Carey is to get right back on the ice.

That’s the mindset the skip is going with when she leads her Morden rink into Morris for the Manitoba Curling Tour Championship this weekend. Carey is in second spot in the MCT point standings and understands what needs to happen to secure her berth for the women’s provincial championship at the end of January.

“I’ve checked out (the standings); I know what we need to do,” she said while on business in Toronto Monday. “We’d like to lock up that spot now, so we’ll have to do a little bit of winning to get there.”

Based on point standings, berths for both the women’s and men’s provincial championships will be handed out after the MCT Championships.

Carey doesn’t have to win the MCT to earn a berth at the Scotties but she does need to have a good showing. Simply put: She only needs to qualify for the playoff round to pick up her invite to the provincials.

So the pressure is on until the qualifying round. On a personal level, Carey wants to win — if for no other reason but to help flush out some of the bitter taste of losing an Olympic-qualifier berth to Jennifer Jones in front of a national audience Sunday.

“The (Canada Cup) final was disappointing and really takes away from a great week that we had out there against an incredible field,” Carey said. “But the Morris club has been good to us. We’ve had a fair amount of success there and the ice is great.

“We’re hoping to defend our title.”

Also in the 12-team women’s field are top-seed Barb Spencer (Fort Rouge), third-ranked Michelle Montford (Assiniboine) and No. 7-seed Cathy Overton-Clapham (Fort Rouge). All three have already earned berths to the provincial championship.

MEN IN MORRIS: The scenario for the three Safeway Championship berths up for grabs in the 16-team men’s draw of the MCT Championship is a little more complex, with Deer Lodge’s William Lyburn possibly dictating how things will shake down.

According to the MCT officials, Lyburn has a spot already wrapped up. If he wins in Morris, his club will grab the champion’s berth and the other two invites will be passed out to the next two teams in the point standings after the weekend.

If Lyburn doesn’t win, he still goes to the provincials via his high points total, the champion gets a spot, and the team next in the standings behind Lyburn grabs the third berth.

Rob Fowler (Brandon), Sean Grassie (Deer Lodge) and Vic Peters (Fort Garry) are all in contention to earn a berth for the men’s provincial championship in February when the tournament begins on Thursday.

JUNIOR NEWS: With wins over the weekend, Assiniboine Memorial’s Derek Blanchard, St. Vital’s Matt Dunstone and Heather’s Brendan Gobeil picked up Winnipeg region berths for the 2012 Junior Men’s Provincial Championship Jan. 5-9.

On the junior women’s side, three Victoria clubs — Beth Peterson, Katelyn Williams and Alyssa Vandepoele — earned city regional berths for the 2012 Junior Women’s Provincial Championship Jan. 5-9.

EXTRA END: Regina’s Brent Gedak beat Winnipeg’s Chris Galbraith 7-2 (seven ends) in the final of the Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy Classic Monday afternoon.

 

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca