Stakes still high at Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts

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This article was published 22/01/2024 (635 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The stakes at the Manitoba women’s curling championship might not be as high as they once were.

Jennifer Jones won’t be there as Curling Canada granted her an early berth to next month’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Calgary (Feb. 16-25) before the season even began.

Kaitlyn Lawes will be competing in Morden this week for the Buffalo jacket, but if things don’t go her way, she can fall back on one of two wild-card spots for nationals as she’s ranked No. 4 in the Canadian Team Ranking System.

Gimli’s Kerri Einarson, of course, also won’t be there as she’s the reigning, defending four-time Canadian champion.

With it no longer being the only road out of the Keystone Province to the national stage, does it make the event any less important?

Absolutely not.

“There’s still something about winning your province and getting to represent your province that is very, very meaningful,” said Jolene Campbell, the tournament’s No. 3 seed behind Lawes and New Bothwell’s Kate Cameron.

“It doesn’t really affect the way we go into it at all. It makes no difference, to be honest. It’s still the same approach.”

Even without Jones and Einarson in attendance, the field remains loaded. Lawes, Cameron (No. 8) and Campbell (No. 9) are all ranked Top 10 in the nation.

Assiniboine’s Beth Peterson isn’t far behind at No. 14 while East St. Paul’s Kristy Watling is ranked 20th.

The 12-team Manitoba provincials kick off Wednesday and wrap up Sunday with a 2 p.m. final.

With Nunavut withdrawing from this year’s Canadian women’s curling championship, there are now two wild-card spots up for grabs instead of one. Depending on how things shake out across the country, there could be five Manitoba teams in Calgary as both Cameron and Campbell are in striking distance. In order for that to happen, Selena Sturmay (Alberta), Danielle Inglis (Ontario) and Corryn Brown (B.C.) would all likely need to get the job done in their respective playdowns.

Cameron, who spent the past four years curling out of Alberta, isn’t wasting her energy thinking about any of that.

“To be honest with you, very little. Like maybe one minute. There’s too many scenarios,” said Cameron. “At the end of the day, we need to put ourselves in a position to be in that final on Sunday and hopefully, we come out on the right side. But if not, there’s a small chance that maybe we have a consolation prize, but we want to do what we can to control our fate ourselves.”

Cameron played third for a decade before switching to skip this season with a new team featuring third Meghan Walter, second Taylor McDonald, and lead Mackenzie Elias.

They started the year strong with nine straight wins and a first-place finish at the Icebreaker Challenge in Morris. After 11 events, they’re 36-27 with two semifinal appearances and a second-place showing at the Hack2House Alberta Curling Series Major in September. They’re 1-2 against Lawes this year and dropped their lone meeting against Campbell.

Cameron won the Manitoba title back in 2017 playing third for Michelle Englot.

“We have a long-term goal with the four of us and a few more years to go to finish all of that. Obviously, we’d like to showcase a good week and put us in a good position Sunday.”– Kate Cameron

“I don’t think one week represents an entire season. I think a lot of hard work by all four of us have gone into this year and I think we recognize that you don’t get results immediately,” said Cameron. “We have a long-term goal with the four of us and a few more years to go to finish all of that. Obviously, we’d like to showcase a good week and put us in a good position Sunday. But if it doesn’t happen, I don’t think it’s telling of our season and of the work we put in behind the scenes.”

Walter and Elias joining Cameron forced former teammates Abby Ackland and Sara Oliver to start over. Campbell, a 42-year-old from Regina who hadn’t skipped full-time since 2016-17, and Rachel Erickson, a 24-year-old born in Brandon, reached out to form a new foursome after two years playing with Chelsea Carey.

Campbell and Co. went 27-18 in seven events together, winning the MCT Shootout in Selkirk and reaching two finals. After failing to qualify for the DeKalb Superspiel in early December, they rebounded nicely by winning six games before dropping the Western Showdown final to Korea’s Eunjung Kim in Swift Current, Sask.

Cameron and Campbell went winless at last week’s Grand Slam in Red Deer, Alta., — the Co-op Canadian Open. Lawes also missed the playoffs by going 1-3.

Cameron was unable to play due to work commitments, leading to Carey filling in for her.

“As a brand-new team, if you were going to come out of that at 0-4 and you were going to let that affect your week at provincials, I think it would probably be best to decline the invite, quite frankly,” said Campbell.

“It certainly doesn’t affect our confidence or where we’re at heading into provincials.”

Campbell and Lawes, who left Jones in 2022 to start her own team, have not crossed paths this season but likely will at some point in Morden.

“It’s a tough field, we know that, but winning any provincial is always tough,” said Campbell. “It’s always going to come down to those big games and we’re feeling good about it.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

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