Optimist International Under-18 Championships Underway in Winnipeg

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

Competition for 24 Under-18 curling champion teams from across Canada and the United States as well as from Japan is underway in the Optimist International U-18 Curling Championships in Winnipeg.

A dozen Men’s teams and a dozen Women’s teams, in the Under-18 age category, will be playing through the weekend at the Pembina and Wildewood Curling Clubs. In the established pattern of the event, it is the second consecutive year that the two clubs are hosting the event.

In addition to the host teams from Manitoba, the U-18 Championships include both Men’s and Women’s teams from Japan, Alberta, British Columbia, Minnesota, Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories, Ontario, Quebec,  and Saskatchewan.  There are also U-18 Men’s teams from Massachusetts and Washington along with U-18 Women from Wisconsin and Yukon.

The competitors are split into equal groups of six teams and will play a five game round robin series followed by playoffs establishing a Champion and final rankings for all teams.

The teams arrived in Winnipeg over the past two days for practices and a Development Camp featuring Canadian National coaches.  First games followed the Thursday evening opening ceremonies.

Team Manitoba U-18 Women survey the situation on the 4th end of their game with Saskatchewan. Down three, Manitoba scored two then stole a point to tie the game but Saskatchewan came back to lead by three coming home and won the game 7-4.

Friday, April 4th, 2008

After three rounds of play in the Optimist International Under-18 Curling Championships in Winnipeg, the teams from Ontario lead their divisions in both the U-18 Men’s and Women’s competitions.

Manitoba’s U-18 Men’s team and the team from Nova Scotia lead the way in their division of the championship with a perfect 3-0 record. Team Ontario is the only unbeaten team in the other U-18 Men’s division following a 6-2 win by Ontario over Northwest Territories in their head-to-head game Friday evening that dropped Team Territories out of a share of first place.

In the U-18 Women’s competition, Team Saskatchewan defeated Manitoba Friday evening to create a logjam in first place in their division. Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec all have 2-1 records in that group. 

Team Ontario leads the way in the other U-18 Women’s division with a perfect 3-0 record.

The final two rounds of round-robin play take place Saturday with playoffs at the Winnipeg Pembina and Wildewood Curling Clubs on Sunday.

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

The two teams from Ontario, the Manitoba Men’s team, and Saskatchewan’s Women’s team have finished in first place in the four divisions of the Optimist International Under-18 Curling Championships underway at the Pembina and Wildewood Curling Clubs.

Ontario’s Neil Sinclair and Kendra Lilly teams finished with perfect 5-0 records, as did Nova Scotia’s/Manitoba’s Kendal Thompson/Connor Njegovan.

Brooklyn Lemon’s Saskatchewan finished on top of the other U-18 Women’s division with a 4-1 record. Saskatchewan was tied with Manitoba Breanne Meakin but was awarded first place due to a round-robin win over the host team.

In the final round of play, the Ontario teams both stole deuces on the home end to break 6-6 ties and complete their perfect runs to the playoffs.

The Manitoba and Nova Scotia U-18 Men’s teams went into their head-to-head final game with perfect records and first place on the line. It took an extra end for Manitoba to accomplish a 7-6 win.

Saskatchewan’s U-18 Women won their final game 8-2 to break a tie with Quebec. Manitoba was also part of the 3-way tie going into the final draw. They won their final game 7-3 over Nova Scotia to finish 4-1.

In the medal round  Sunday, the groups cross-over with #1 in one division playing #2 in the other.

In the U-18 Men’s Championship round, Black Group first place Ontario plays Nova Scotia while Red Group first place Manitoba plays Washington, won stole an extra end to win their final game and finish with a 4-1 record.

In the U-18 Women’s Championship round, Black Group first place Ontario plays Manitoba while Red Group first place Saskatchewan plays British Columbia, who won their final game to finish at 4-1.

All 12 teams in each competition will play in the Sunday playoffs. The championship ranking playoffs will determine 1^st to 4^th place, 5^th to 8^th and 9^th to 12^th place in the final standings.