Watling in familiar territory at provincial curling championship

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This article was published 23/01/2025 (571 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Things are taking a familiar shape for Kristy Watling.

The East St. Paul skip led the only undefeated team through three contests at the Manitoba women’s provincial curling championship before suffering a 7-4 defeat to Assiniboine’s Darcy Robertson in Thursday’s late-evening draw.

Aside from the one hiccup, Team Watling has looked dominant at times in the tournament, which was the case in an 11-2 result that required just six ends over Lane Prokopowich’s young team out of the Granite earlier in the day.

The tournament’s third seed is tied with Roberton and Assiniboine’s Beth Peterson at 3-1 atop the Asham Ultra Force Group through two days.

Watling, who is still looking for her first berth to the Scottie’s Tournament of Hearts, has experienced similar success at the Manitoba playdowns. She’s also suffered heartbreak and taken her lumps in this event.

In 2022, she went 5-0 in round-robin play and made a run to the championship draw before losing to Mackenzie Zacharias. After a disappointing 1-4 record in 2023, Watling — and her new-look team that included third Laura Burtnyk, import second Emily Deschenes and lead Sarah Pyke — finished fourth at last year’s event.

That’s all to say, Watling has been here before, and while it’s still too early to be thinking about a championship, the 29-year-old does see some similarities to her run three years ago.

“So far, yes, because we’re 3-0, but it’s also so early on in the week and there’s so many games left on the table that I feel like it’s too early to start looking back and being like, ‘This is how it (felt) in 2022 in Carberry.’ But, yeah, so far we’re feeling good,” Watling said Thursday after defeating Prokopowich.

“Each year has been really unique from one another and always at the end we like to reflect on what we like (and) what we didn’t like, so I feel like we’ve taken the bits and pieces from all those learning experiences from years past, and now we’re just finding out what works best for us and what’s going to put us in the best position to win.”

The provincial playdowns have featured a tremendous amount of parity through two days. The top four seeds have all suffered defeat, and the crown is anyone’s for the taking.

Kate Cameron, the tournament’s top seed out of the Heather, fell 9-5 to Hailey McFarlane’s young squad from Neepawa early on Thursday. At the same time, Lisa McLeod of Pembina, the fourth seed, lost 10-4 in nine ends to Assiniboine’s Rachel Kaatz. Cameron (3-1) would bounce back later in the day with a dominant 9-3 triumph over Kaatz (1-3) that needed just six ends.

Team McLeod (3-1) also redeemed itself with a 6-4 victory over Granite’s Sarah-Jane Sass (2-2), who started the day with a 9-5 win over Cheyenne Ehnes of Manitou. Ehnes (0-4) was effectively eliminated from playoff contention after falling 8-7 to McFarlane (3-1).

Then there’s Cassidy Dundas’ junior team from Heather, which at 1-3 has not gotten the results it has wanted but has punched above its weight this week. Though the line score will read a 9-5 loss in nine ends, Dundas gave Peterson, the No. 2 seed, all she could handle in a contest that was tied after eight ends. Dundas also took Watling to extra ends on Wednesday, falling 7-6.

Dundas fell to Carberry’s Alyssa Calvert 9-2 in nine ends in another hard-fought battle later on Thursday. It concluded a strong day for Calvert (2-2), who also downed Robertson 8-2 in nine ends.

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Meanwhile, Peterson rolled to a 8-2 victory over Prokopowich (0-4) in seven ends.

“Going into this, we know there’s going to be no easy games,” Watling said. “Every team we play, we step out on the ice expecting to go to 10 ends, down to the last rock. Manitoba’s talent is just so wide and has so much depth that you can’t take any of these teams lightly.”

The final round-robin games take place at Pilot Mound Millennium Recreation Complex today, with draws at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., before the opening draw of the championship round goes at 6:30 p.m.

Games are broadcast on the CurlManitoba YouTube channel.

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

Joshua Frey-Sam
Reporter

Josh Frey-Sam reports on sports and business at the Free Press. Josh got his start at the paper in 2022, just weeks after graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College. He reports primarily on amateur teams and athletes in sports. Read more about Josh.

Every piece of reporting Josh produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.