Manitoba’s Hayward good as gold

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This article was published 10/02/2024 (836 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Shaela Hayward’s Carman foursome was golden at the Canadian U18 curling championships in Ottawa Saturday afternoon.

Hayward, with third Keira Krahn, second India Young and lead Rylie Cox, beat Quebec’s Jolianne Fortin team 8-5 in the women’s final.

Manitoba scored three in the first end and four more in the third to take a commanding 7-2 lead.

“We won against Quebec in the round robin so we knew we had a shot but we had to just hang in there,” said Hayward by phone. “I woke up (Saturday) morning and the nerves hit me a little bit. I was a little bit nervous, so I had to calm myself down a bit and just play the game I love…

“It’s the biggest win we’ve ever pulled off. I’m just so proud. I can’t believe we just did that.”

The Hayward team, all four of whom are Grade 12 students at Carman Collegiate, earned a spot in the national final after posting a 4-2 semifinal victory over Nova Scotia’s Rebecca Regan Friday night.

Quebec threatened to close the gap in the fourth end Saturday but Manitoba escaped with minimal damage.

“We got the early lead, which was awesome but in the fourth I think they had a shot for four or five,” said Hayward, noting that Fortin jammed her attempted double and only got a single point, leaving Manitoba with a 7-3 edge.

“And I was like, ‘Oh God, we got a break there.’ They’re great team but I put that rock in probably the worst of all possible spots for her to get double.”

The team had a solid run at the recent Manitoba women’s championship in Morden, finishing with a 3-2 record in the preliminary round to narrowly miss advancing to the championship round.

A highlight of their Scotties experience was facing and losing 12-2 in their round-robin opener to two-time Olympic gold medallist Kaitlyn Lawes.

“The Scotties helped a ton,” said Hayward, whose team went 4-2 in the round-robin portion of nationals before reeling off four consecutive playoff wins. “Just being in that environment, on arena ice and with the crowd like that — it was great practice for this event.

“Our goal was to just get as much experience out of the Scotties and we ended up doing pretty well. So we knew we had a shot coming (to Ottawa) but I didn’t know if we could do it, but here we are.”

The Hayward foursome will also compete at the Manitoba U21 playdowns in their hometown later this month.

“I think we’ve got a good chance at qualifying for the Canadians,” said Hayward. “We’re just gonna go there and play our best. play like we did here and we’ll see what happens.”