Wahl plans to put province back among curling elite

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This article was published 01/01/2024 (1002 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s no room for error for the 12 teams competing in this week’s under-18 Manitoba women’s curling provincials in Selkirk.

For the first time since 2019, Manitoba will only have one women’s team wearing the Buffalo at nationals. The previous two years saw the province send two foursomes to battle against Canada’s best young talent. The second berth was taken away as Manitoba woman have struggled at the event in recent years.

It’s a different story on the men’s side as their provincials, which also run Jan. 3-7 inside the Selkirk Curling Club, will still award trips to the national championship tournament to the two finalists.

Altona’s Dayna Wahl is hoping she can help change things for the better.

The reigning, defending provincial champion is eyeing a repeat, but more importantly, she wants to be the one that opens the door again for a second women’s side out of the Keystone Province.

“There’s definitely a little more pressure knowing that you don’t have that (reassurance) that if you’re in the final, you’re going to nationals no matter what,” said Wahl, who kicks provincials off early Thursday against Jorja Buhr.

“But we did it last year, so, we’re just going to try to do what we did then.”

Last year was a breakout season for Wahl, Piper Stoesz, Anna Marie Ginters, and Gillian Hildebrand. They took home the provincial title, but also won Manitoba’s Canada Winter Games berth a few months earlier. They ended up going 1-5 at nationals in Timmins, Ont., before taking a significant step forward at the Canada Games in Prince Edward Island a few weeks later by qualifying for the playoffs.

“It was good to have one right before the other because it kind of gave us an idea what the Canada Games were going to be like,” said Wahl.

“We knew we’d be seeing all the same teams from nationals basically, so then we definitely knew what we were getting into.”

Now with some experience their names, Wahl thinks they can do some damage at nationals (Feb. 4-10 in Ottawa) if they can get there. Head coach Chris Hamblin, who manages the Cargill Curling Training Centre in Morris and is one of the province’s most accomplished coaches, agrees.

“I think the experience from last year was huge. Going into a national with that experience behind you is always going to give you an edge. Having said that, we know there’s a number of teams that do repeat at the U18 nationals so they won’t be the only team with experience, so, it will be a challenge, no question,” said Hamblin, who’s in her first year as the team’s head coach but has worked with them for several years.

“Can they make a run and be one of the top four teams? Absolutely… but we can’t think of that yet because you obviously have to get out of Manitoba first.”

It’s no longer the same roster for the Altona Curling Club team as they replaced Ginters with Lauren Weselak just over a month ago. Wahl, Stoesz, and Hildebrand played one event as a three-person unit before scooping up Weselak for the homestretch.

“It’s definitely hard to try and find someone midway through the season to try and find somebody who isn’t already committed to a team, so, we were very lucky,” said Wahl.

“I’m very relaxed about it. I think it’s going to go very well.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

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