February 15, 2019

32 teams hit the ice at the KW Granite Club to kick off five-day banner season festivities

Waterloo, Ont. - The 2019 OUA Curling Championships got underway Thursday at the KW Granite Club as 16 men’s and 16 women’s team took to the ice in search of a conference title.

In women’s action, four teams separated themselves from the pack early on and hold an undefeated mark through two draws.

In Pool A, the Toronto Varsity Blues and the Lakehead Thunderwolves sit atop their eight-team pool with two wins each.

Lakehead, skipped by former U SPORTS silver medalist Hailey Beaudry, had a pair of convincing wins as they defeated the Trent Excalibur 8-1 and the Carleton Ravens 7-3.

Meanwhile, Toronto, led by skip Mackenzie Kiemele, opened with a 7-3 win over the host Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks before getting past the Waterloo Warriors by a score of 9-4.

The two pool leaders will square off on Day 2 Friday, at 5:30 p.m., in one of the games to watch.

As for the host Golden Hawks, the defending OUA Champions, skip Kaitlin Jewer and her squad bounced back from the loss to Toronto with a 7-2 victory over the UOIT Ridgebacks to sit among four teams tied at 1-1.

Over in Pool B, it is the Queen’s Gaels and the Brock Badgers who find themselves on top, each sporting 2-0 records.

The Gaels, skipped by former World Junior champion Mary Fay, had a pair of relatively easy games, cruising past the Algoma Thunderbirds 7-1 in the first draw of the day before defeating the Laurentian Voyageurs 6-2.

Brock, with fifth-year senior Terri Weeks calling the shots, played a pair of tight contests but managed to come out on top in both. The Badgers got past the Guelph Gryphons 8-6 before rallying from an early deficit to defeat the Western Mustangs 8-3.

In men’s action, five teams picked up two wins on Thursday including the Carleton Ravens, Western Mustangs and Brock Badgers in Pool C as well as the Laurentian Voyageurs and the McMaster Marauders in Pool D.

The Ravens, led by skip Cameron Goodkey, were solid in their two victories, defeating the Varsity Blues 7-1 and the host Golden Hawks 7-4.

Western, skipped by Ryan Thompson-Brown, and Brock, led by 2019 Ontario junior champion Sam Steep, ran up the scoreboard in high-scoring games to pick up their two wins.

The Mustangs got past Lakehead 9-8 in an extra end before galloping past Guelph 7-2.

As for Brock, they comfortably cruised to their wins beating Windsor 11-4 and Toronto 7-2.

Laurier’s men’s team got off to a slow start in their bid to win the championship as host, sitting at 0-2 after defeats at the hands of Guelph and the Ravens.

Over in Pool D, Laurentian and skip Tanner Horgan, a six-time Northern Ontario junior champion, needed their last stones in each game to squeeze out identical 7-6 victories over Trent and Waterloo.

McMaster, led by skip Jacob Lamb, needed an extra end in the late draw to defeat Queen’s 8-7 to finish Day 1 at 2-0. Earlier on Thursday, the Marauders dominated the Algoma Thunderbirds by a score of 12-0.

Day 2 of the OUA Curling Championships gets underway at 8 a.m. on Friday, February 15 with five more draws throughout the course of the day.

Day 1 Standings

Pool A (Women)

T1 - Lakehead 2-0

T1 - Toronto 2-0

T3 - Laurier 1-1

T3 - Trent 1-1

T3 - Carleton 1-1

T3 - Waterloo 1-1

T7 - Windsor 0-2

T7 - UOIT 0-2

Pool B (Women)