SASKATOON -- It was a solid showing for a pair of rinks from the Moose Jaw Curling Centre at the Canadian U18 Men’s and Women’s Curling Championship in Saskatoon this past week.
The Dayne Heisler foursome reached the playoff round before finishing sixth overall in the men’s draw, while the Kaylee Hogeboom rink missed a playoff spot by a tiebreaker and would go on to finish 14th overall.
Heisler and his rink of third Blake Montgomery, second Riley Cushway, lead Laine Burnham and coach Rod Montgomery didn’t get off to the best of starts, losing three of their first four round robin games to sit a 1-3 heading into the evening draw on Wednesday.
Things turned around in dramatic fashion, though, with an 8-7 win over Northern Ontario’s Justin MacKay and 4-2 victory over Nova Scotia’s Elex Lockhart boosting their record to 3-3 after the round robin.
As it turns out, that would be enough to get into the playoffs, where they’d take on Esterhazy’s Brandon Weiss in an all Saskatchewan match-up in the first round.
With that contest tied 2-2 through four ends, Heisler would pick up a deuce in the sixth to take control of the contest and went on to a 5-3 victory.
That set up a quarter-final battle with eventual champion Zach Atherton from Nova Scotia, and Heisler came within a hair of victory, scoring two in the seventh to takae a 4-3 lead but giving up a pair in the final end to fall 5-4.
Heisler then moved into the fifth-place game against Manitoba’s Nash Sugden, where he’d drop an 8-2 decision to finish sixth out of 21 teams.
Hogeboom, third Payton Fisher, second Abby Hogeboom, lead Callista McQueen, alternate Kelsey McQueen and coach Barb Owens had the most up-and-down tournament imaginable, but still nearly landed in the playoff round.
After going 1-2 to start the event, Hogeboom would take an 8-2 win over Newfoundland’s Kyla Walsh before dropping a 7-4 decision to New Brunswick’s Kate Gaines, setting up a must-win situation in her final round robin game.
Hogeboom would do her part with steals of two in the final two ends of an 8-1 victory over Nova Scotia’s Olivia Gouthro, giving her a 3-3 round robin record. Unlike Heisler, the tiebreaker didn’t fall her way, and the Moose Jaw foursome would end up playing for 13th place.
That contest against Northwest Territories’ Reese Wainman was another back-and-forth battle, with Hogeboom picking up single points in three straight ends to tie the game 6-6 before Wainman scored three in the eighth for a 9-6 win.
As a result, Hogeboom finish 14th out of 21 teams.
Atherton defeated Ontario’s Tyler MacTavish to claim the men’s title, while Nova Scotia’s Cassidy Blades downed Alberta’s Abby Desormeau to claim women’s gold.
