Terrick sisters rocking the house at national U21 women’s curling tourney

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This article was published 29/03/2023 (1283 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It doesn’t matter how small the town is. If you’re anywhere in Manitoba, chances are it has a curling club.

McCreary, which sits east of Riding Mountain National Park and has roughly 500 residents, can attest to that as they boast a three-sheet shack run by volunteers.

As modest as the facility may be, it’s home to one of the best junior curling teams in the country — the Terrick sisters.

Since they were young, Jaycee, Zoey, Tessa, and their parents Craig and Lorrie spent hours maintaining the ice at their local rink, but they’re in a much bigger building this week as the sisters, as well as second Jensen Letham of Winnipeg, are in Rouyn-Noranda, Que., for the 2023 Canadian Under-21 Women’s Curling Championship.

“Where we grew up, we were always driving to different events. The ice is great in McCreary, but you didn’t really have events there, so we were always driving an hour to Dauphin or three hours to Winnipeg or Swan River. We were always driving,” said Jaycee, who throws last rocks. Zoey calls the game and throws third stones while Tessa plays lead.

“This is an awesome feeling. It’s so great to represent Manitoba, especially with this team, these girls, my sisters. It’s so crazy to think we all have a Buffalo together now.”

Jaycee, 21, Zoey, 18, and 17-year-old Tessa earned the right to wear the Buffalo jacket at nationals after claiming the provincial title in Portage in January with a 9-8 extra-end victory over St. Vital’s Grace Beaudry in the final.

It’s the first year the siblings have teamed up and the results have been positive to say the least. The Terricks, who were raised on the family’s cattle farm, improved to 4-1 after a 7-5 win against Northern Ontario Wednesday afternoon. Alberta’s Myla Plett sits on top of their pool at 5-0. The 18-team event wraps up Sunday.

Tessa is in Grade 12 back in McCreary. Jaycee and Zoey now live in Winnipeg and study at the University of Manitoba.

“We don’t actually fight on the ice, which is really good. We get along really well, and we always wanted to curl together in Jaycee’s last year (of junior) as we’re all around the same age,” said Zoey. “We’ve always loved curling and would go and watch each other. I just love it, it’s really fun, and I’m really happy we get to do it together.”

While Letham has a different last name, she fits right in.

“She’s like our sister. It’s like we’re four sisters curling together,” said Jaycee.

The province sent two women’s teams and two men’s teams to under-21 nationals. Beaudry is playing as Manitoba No. 2 and is 2-2 through four games. On the men’s side, Deer Lodge’s Jordon McDonald was 5-0 heading into a late Wednesday meeting against 4-0 Jace Freeman out of Virden.

McDonald edged out Freeman 8-7 in the Manitoba junior men’s provincial championship.

The Terricks return to the Jacques-Laperriere Arena at 8 a.m. CT Thursday to play Quebec (0-4). Beaudry plays the morning draw against winless Northwest Territories. Unlike the men’s event, the Terricks and Beaudry are in different pools.

The top three teams from both pools advance to Saturday’s playoffs.

“It would mean a lot to me, and I think everyone else because none of us have ever made playoffs at this calibre of an event before,” said Zoey.

“It would be really cool to get there. And I know if we play well, we can do it. We just need to keep playing well, keep communicating, and I think we’ll have a chance.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31