For the second year in a row, the Christina Hlatky rink won the annual CHAB Youth Bonspiel.
“We won last year, so it was nice to win again,” said Hlatky.
Her Regina rink of Eva Grabarczyk, Tegan Zankl and Stephanie Bukurak edged the Brenden Ross rink from Swift Current 6-5 to win the elementary division on Sunday afternoon at the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre.
“One minute we were jumping with excitement and the next we just wanted to get out of there. It was very hard and a very good team,” said Hlatky. “We got down, but we tried to help each other up. That was the most important thing.”
There were 16 teams from all over southern Saskatchewan with seven teams playing in the elementary division and nine in the high school division. Teams played four round robin games then the top four rinks advanced from each division into a semifinal then into the final.
In the high school division, the Kaitlyn Jones rink from Regina claimed the top prize after defeating the Kent Evenson rink from Frontier by an 8-3 score. Jones’ rink included Stasia Wisniewski, Maidson Englot and Rayann Zerr.
“I think that we played pretty well overall. We had some good scores and it was good competition. We went undefeated,” stated Jones.
There were three local teams that competed, including the James Barkway rink (Carson Ackerman, Jonathan Wells and Colton Brown) in the high school division. In the elementary division there was the Brett Behm rink (Andrew Gray, JR Evans and Noah Drake) and the David Gray rink (Matthew Swanson, Mayson Gray and Braydon Bollinger).
Of the three local teams, it was the Behm rink that qualified and finished third in their pool.
“This is the first bonspiel they have ever played in. I was so proud of those kids because they have just been curling Monday nights in our youth league. They are on the ice for an hour and half a week and never played an eight end game before,” said Shaunna Fritzler, Business Manager at the Curling Centre. “They came out and played five games in a weekend and I saw them improve on everything. It is great experience for them.”
Although the Gray rink didn’t come out on top, the rink still had a great experience in the elementary division.
“Those kids are eight to 10 years old and have never played an eight end game and they came out and shot really well and made some doubles and some excellent draws,” said Fritzler. “They didn’t get the W, but they really improved and enjoyed the weekend.”
Winners of each division got a $50 pre-paid VISA card.
