Manitoban melee at Canada West curling championships

Carter Williamson will end his university curling career doing a familiar thing in an unfamiliar role.

The Dauphin product is throwing the last rocks for the Regina Cougars at this week’s Canada West Championships in Edmonton, something he hasn’t done since he was a teenager.

Williamson, who threw second for the first four years of his university career — first under skip Rylan Kleiter and then Josh Bryden — was thrust into the skipping role as the most-veteran player in the program and will lead a trio of first-year players in lead Evan Arnold, second Andrew Moulding, third Rhett Whittmire and alternate Nathan Weiss at the Saville Community Sports Centre as the team looks to capture the Cougars’ second consecutive conference title.

“We’re kind of jumping off the deep end here,” said Williamson, a fifth-year student-athlete.

The Cougars are one of nine schools in the expanded conference championship field, including the Brandon Bobcats, who represent the province’s lone university curling program.

The Cougars play a condensed schedule, so Williamson’s only game action as a skip came at a Sask Curling Tour event in Moose Jaw in November. It was nothing short of a forgettable outing at the rink, he said, one that they hope to bounce back from this week.

“It’s a huge difference. I was playing second all season — I’m basically the meathead that goes, throws hard, sweeps hard. That’s really it, right?” he said.

“I think it’ll just be a little bit of a learning curve. You see the house from a different perspective — you’re in it — there’s a lot more thinking than what I’m used to doing. So I’ll maybe try to turn the meathead off this weekend and just actually be smart about it.”

“We’re kind of jumping off the deep end here.”

To Williamson’s benefit, Regina will host the U Sports/Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association national championship next month, which means the Cougars’ spot is already secure. That should allow him and the rest of the team to play a bit more freely this week before the biggest event on the calendar.

“I’m personally coming off a week of playing in (Saskatchewan) men’s provincials in Melville. The club that we’re going to play in is very similar to arena ice, so that helps out a lot that I basically just went and played eight 10-end games on the same ice that we’re going to be throwing on,” Williamson said.

“In the past, our Regina teams won CanWest, we’ve won U Sports (in 2024), we’ve played at worlds with the university team, so I’ve been there — I feel pretty comfortable going to it. There’s still the butterflies of waking up (Wednesday) morning and driving to Canada West just like it was my first year, but no, I’m kind of the veteran on the team now, so I fall back on my experience.”

Williamson said an arena can be dressed up in any way, and he still understands it’s a curling rink at the end of the day — a sanctuary where he’s developed “a weird comfort level.”

At the U Sports championship, it will mark the end of his career at the place where it all started.

“That’s where we hosted Westerns my first year. It’s home. I’ve grown up a lot since I moved from Dauphin to Regina, so I consider it home,” he said. “I absolutely love the Callie (Caledonian Curling Club) and Regina and surrounding communities, and the Sask curling community has just welcomed me with open arms.

“I’m just ready for it to come. I think it’s gonna be a fun week for everyone.”

The top two teams from both men’s and women’s competitions this week will qualify for the national championships.

Williamson is one of two Manitobans vying for the right to be called men’s Canada West champions this week, though.

Oakbank’s Ronan Peterson is making his conference championship debut as third for the hosting Alberta Golden Bears, who are looking to return to the top of the Canada West mountain after failing to do so last year for the first time.

Peterson, in his third year with the Golden Bears, is playing his first season with the program’s varsity team.

He spent two seasons playing for the junior squad, which plays in junior events around Alberta and acts as a feeder program to the team that plays at championship bonspiels.

The entire Golden Bears varsity team from last season has graduated, so it has set the stage for Peterson, along with skip Zach Davies, second Will Butler, lead Adam Naugler and alternate Peter Hlushak.

“It’s just really exciting to be playing in probably the most important event of my year.”

“It’s really exciting. I mean, I’ve been waiting two years to be on this team, finally earned myself a spot, and it’s just really exciting to be playing in probably the most important event of my year and, so far, my time here at the U of A,” said Peterson, who played on the men’s tour and U25 events throughout the winter.

The Golden Bears have been the best men’s program in the country since curling became a Canada West sport in 2019. Last year ended a run of five straight conference titles for the Golden Bears — Williamson’s Cougars won — and it will be up to Peterson’s squad to get the program back on track.

“I mean, there’s a little pressure, but I feel like we’ve been using it as motivation in our preparation this year,” he said. “Everyone wants to win. Everyone’s trying their hardest to get there, and we’re training really hard, so I feel like we have a really good shot at winning and getting the program back on track.”

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