Manitoba junior teams rule the world

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This article was published 22/02/2020 (2294 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Not that the world needed a reminder, but this weekend provided another example of Manitoba being pretty darn good at this curling thing.

Saturday afternoon in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, two teams from the Keystone Province became world junior curling champions.

Jacques Gauthier and his rink from Winnipeg won men’s gold for Canada with a 7-2 victory over Switzerland. It was a tough act to follow for Mackenzie Zacharias and her Altona team, but they were equal to the occasion, winning the women’s title with a 7-5 victory over South Korea.

“Manitoba has always been known as a curling province and I think this just proves it again,” said Zacharias, whose younger sister Emily plays second on the team. Third Karlee Burgess, a Nova Scotia native, is now a three-time world junior champ and lead Lauren Lenentine of P.E.I. has won for a second time.

“I think that all of Canada is really strong and Manitoba especially this year was just incredible.”

The win caps off a sensational season for Zacharias and her teammates. At last month’s junior nationals in Langley, B.C., Zacharias went a perfect 11-0. At junior worlds, Zacharias went 7-2 in the round-robin before beating Russia 9-8 in the semis and then knocking off an undefeated Korean team in the final. It’s the 13th time a Canadian women’s team has claimed junior gold on the world stage.

“Feels pretty amazing. It definitely hasn’t sunk in yet for any of us,” said Zacharias in a phone interview, minutes before boarding a plane to begin the long journey home. “We’re just really happy to be going home with a gold medal.”

A look at Gauthier’s season tells you everything you need to know about Manitoba’s curling dominance. Gauthier was upset in the provincial championship by Brett Walter. Luckily for Gauthier, his team was still able to go to nationals as Nunavut and the Yukon couldn’t field teams. Since Manitoba was the runner-up at the 2019 junior men’s nationals, a team Gauthier played third on, the province was able to send a pair of squads in 2020. Gauthier made no mistake on his second chance, only losing once at last month’s nationals.

‘Manitoba has always been known as a curling province and I think this just proves it again’– Emily Zacharias

“I think it showed us how we had to play in a final,” said Gauthier on losing the buffalo jacket to Walter. “After that one, every semifinal and final was sudden death. I think we figured out that it’s cool to be nervous and anxious for a game, but you can’t let it negatively hamper you like it did for us in the Manitoba final. I think we took a lot from that loss. We learned from it and built on it.”

In Russia, Gauthier went 7-2 in the round-robin before taking Germany down 7-4 in the semifinal. Canada has now won world junior men’s curling gold 21 times.

According to Curl Manitoba, it’s the first time two Manitoban teams have won world junior gold in the same year.

“Definitely doesn’t feel real for us. I think it won’t set in for a while,” Gauthier said. “We were basically just getting used to the idea that we are Canadian champions and now we got to come to grips that we’re the world champions. I think once we get home, it will set in with the recognition that we’ll get.”

It’s hard to believe that a year ago Gauthier wasn’t even a skip. He spent the past three seasons winning provincial titles as a third for JT Ryan, who now plays on the men’s circuit. But with Ryan aging out, Gauthier and Jordan Peters, who now plays third, had to find some teammates. They brought Brandon’s Brayden Payette on at second and recruited Zack Bilawka to play lead. The new-look team had some growing pains at the beginning of the season, but when it mattered most, they came together.

“We put this team together to make it to nationals and see what happens,” said Gauthier.

“When we got to nationals, we got hot at the right time. And when we came here, it was the same thing… We accomplished something that we didn’t even know was possible.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31