Favourites in fine form on first day of Manitoba men’s championship

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This article was published 06/02/2019 (2613 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VIRDEN — There were no shocking developments — save for a score befitting of a football game — on Day 1 of the Manitoba men’s curling championship Wednesday.

The top seeds all cruised to victories to open the Viterra.

Defending champion and heavy favourite Reid Carruthers (West St. Paul) blasted Robert Daudet’s Granite crew — playing in its first provincial championship — 15-1 in a late-afternoon battle.

Carruthers is playing third, while Mike McEwen skips and Derek Samagalski and Colin Hodgson work the front end.

“You really want to get going. So, to have our first game — obviously, I felt we played really well, everyone was throwing the rock really well — is awesome for us,” Carruthers said. “I remember my first game in what was the (Select). I had some jitters.

“We cracked a five in the first end (against Daudet), so that changed the outcome of the game. You get off to a start like that in your first game, it’s tough to claw back.”

No. 2 seed Jason Gunnlaugson, of Morris, hammered Darren Perche, of Charleswood, 10-2 in a morning draw, while third-seed Braden Calvert downed Shaun Parsons 9-3 and fourth-seed Tanner Lott trounced Greg Todoruk, of Dauphin, 9-2 in the afternoon.

Fifth-seed Dennis Bohn, of Assiniboine Memorial, was given a rough ride by Baldur’s Grant Shewfelt but prevailed 6-5 in an extra end. Granite’s William Lyburn, the six seed, beat Carman’s Dean North 8-3, No. 7 David Bohn (Dennis’s twin brother), of Assiniboine Memorial, thumped Pilot Mound’s Curtis McCannell 8-3, and eighth-seed Corey Chambers, from Lorette, downed Jeff Stewart, of Gladstone, 10-5.

The 32-team championship gets whittled down to eight by Friday night, and then only four remain by Saturday night. Sunday’s final is set for 2:30 p.m., with the champion reserving a spot at the Brier national championship, set for Brandon March 2-10.

The stays at the Manitoba championships were brief for a quartet of teams.

Kelly Robertson of Neepawa, Shaun Parsons of Thompson, Curtis McCannell of Pilot Mound and Darren Perche of Charleswood were eliminated Wednesday night after their second-straight losses of the day.

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Colton Lott has landed gently off cloud nine with a clear head and is already primed for a big week in Virden.

Indeed, the last week has been a whirlwind for the 23-year-old from Winnipeg Beach, who plays third for his brother, Tanner, on the Viterra’s fourth-seeded squad.

Just days ago, Colton Lott was curling on a grand stage overseas with his girlfriend, Kadriana Sahaidak, 19, also from the lakeside community. On Sunday, they captured the mixed doubles title in the third leg of the Curling World Cup in Jonkoping, Sweden.

The Manitobans upended Olympic silver medallists Jenny Perret and Martin Rios of Switzerland in preliminary action and went on to defeat Norway’s Kristin Skaslien and Thomas Ulsrud 7-5 in the final. They earned US$13,250 in prize money — but more importantly, booked a spot in the World Cup’s inaugural Grand Final in May in Beijing.

“We were given an incredible opportunity to compete there. We went there with no great expectations, just to play our best and represent Canada and have as much fun as we could,” said Lott, a two-time Canadian junior men’s champion with skip Matt Dunstone (2013, ’16).

Sahaidak is a club curler with, it turns out, an untapped skill set and a steely competitive spirit.

“How she was able to throw those first and last rocks that good, against those decorated curlers and show no nerves whatsoever was unbelievable,” Lott said. “Don’t get me wrong, winning (at juniors) was amazing, but this is really special for us. I’m that much more excited for her.”

The couple started playing mixed doubles recreationally two years ago but picked up the intricacies of the game quickly. They won the 2018 provincial title and were narrowly defeated by Laura Walker and Kirk Muyres in the Canadian final.

In mid-November, the duo advanced to the final of the Canad Inns Classic in Portage la Prairie but fell to Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris, Canada’s golden team from the Olympics in Pyeongchang.

“It was fun but, obviously, really hard, which just gives us more experience on just how precise we have to be with our shots. It was just an all-around great experience playing the reigning Olympic champions,” Lott said.

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Graham Freeman is pulling double duty this week.

While the 50-year-old Virden resident curls in his 12th Manitoba men’s championship, he’s also part of the ice crew here. His personal guarantee is he’ll be on the ice Sunday.

“Either curling or pushing a broom,” he said Wednesday, with a laugh. “I was hoping to win some money because a lot of guys would take me up on that bet.”

Freeman, flanked by the all-in-the-family Barkley connection of brothers Kevin and Dwayne and their cousin, Cory (championship co-chairman), kicked off the Viterra with a 6-4 victory over Kelly Marnoch, of Carberry. They face Gunnlaugson at 12:15 p.m. today.

Freeman said his attention is divided. But no stone is being left unturned, as it were, to ensure he’s focused during games and plugged in as a key volunteer.

“It’s our responsibility to put on a really good event for the guys. That’s the first priority and we accept that,” Freeman said. “We’re also really excited to have our hat in the ring and try to win a game or two. We haven’t played competitively all that much in the past 10 years, to be quite honest. But we joined the Westman Super League after being away for a long time, and we played a (Manitoba Curling Tour) berth bonspiel (November in Carberry) and we got rolling and won our spot early.

“We’ve waited patiently for this, trying not to over-think it. I didn’t really feel any jitters until (Wednesday) morning when we were playing in here, it hit me.”

Virden hosted the Manitoba championship in 1998, but Freeman failed to quality that year — a burr in his saddle for much too long. He was a competitor the year before and the year after.

“We put a lot of pressure to play at home. We were playing a lot more in those days, thinking we were gonna be somebody, rising up the ranks, playing the MCT,” he said. “Now, we’re older and wiser and maybe a little more patient. It’s great to be in this one… career highlight.”

Freeman’s son Brooks, 19, is fifth on the team for the second straight Viterra.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell