Englot has no time to waste reaching top

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This article was published 22/10/2016 (3569 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Portage la Prairie — Regina’s Michelle Englot had no interest in rebuilding when she went looking for a new team to skip after last season.

Instead, she was looking for a team with the same ambitions she had, primarily, getting to the top of the heap on the women’s curling scene.

“Stepping into a team that’s played together for a couple of years and that already knows how each other plays, with only one change, it’s a bit easier to build a new team,” Englot said before her final draw of the opening day at the Canad Inns Women’s Classic at the Portage Curling Club in Portage la Prairie.

Enter Kristy McDonald’s former team.

McDonald’s team suffered a heartbreaking loss in last year’s provincial finals, falling 7-5 to Kerri Einarson after leading 4-2 heading into the eighth end. McDonald blew a tire in the ninth, allowing Einarson to steal three and all but seal the title.

Following the event, McDonald retired from the game with a baby on the way.

Without a skip, the team, made up of lead Raunora Westcott, second Leslie Wilson and third Kate Cameron, enlisted Englot.

“We’re building and we think we can go so much further with Michelle’s potential,” Cameron said.

The introduction of Englot also helped ease the sting of their tough loss at provincials.

“It’s probably easier with a new player because it’s a fresh start for all of us,” Cameron said.

The team went to South Korea for an event, partly to play together for the first time and partly to get to know one another.

“We’re obviously a new team, so we’re still getting to know each other, but it’s been good, and we’ve been doing fairly well,” Englot said.

Indeed. Englot & Co. took down the Mother Club Fall Curling Classic — their home event at the Granite Curling Club in Winnipeg — at the tail end of September.

Apart from a successful season and another run at the provincial crown early next year, Englot and the team have the Olympics on their minds.

“Definitely. It’s one of the big goals for us, of course,” Englot said of qualifying for the 2017 Roar of the Rings Canadian Curling Trials to be held in Ottawa.

Nine women’s teams qualify for the event, with the winner booking a spot at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Meanwhile, 2014 Olympic gold medalist Jennifer Jones won both her draws Friday.

Jones and her team from the St. Vital Curling Club in Winnipeg dispatched Switzerland’s Melanie Barbezat in the early morning draw and blanked Regina’s Chantelle Eberle 5-0 at later in the day.

Jones, ranked No. 2 in the world, plays Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg today at 1:30 p.m.

World No. 1 Rachel Homan and her Ontario team lost a 6-5 decision to China’s Jie Mei in the first draw of the day.

Homan was up against American skip Cory Christensen in the evening draw. The game was all square 3-3 in the seventh end at press time.

Einarson, the 2016 provincial champ, defeated Japan’s Chiaki Matsumura 7-5 earlier Friday, and was leading Saskatoon’s Stefanie Lawton 5-4 in the seventh end with the hammer.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @scottbilleck