Although they just missed out on their end goal of winning a gold medal at the Saskatchewan Winter Games, the Rivers West male curling team had a memorable experience as the host rink at the Twin Rivers Curling Club this past week.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” lead Jack Reid of North Battleford said. “Just to have the chance to play at an event of this level is pretty incredible.”
“This was the only year that our team could play at the Winter Games as we would all be above the age limit the next time around,” skip Cody Sutherland of Rosetown added. “It’s been an a real honour to represent the district and I’m glad we did well.”
The Rivers West rink, which also included Doug Sroka and Bruce Krepps of Maidstone at the third and second positions, had a 2-0 record in round-robin play and advanced to the gold medal game with a 6-4 win over the South West rink that was skipped by Swift Current’s Theo Lautsch.
Their undefeated run came to an end in the gold medal game Wednesday, however, as they lost a 6-4 affair to Daymond Bernath of Saskatoon.
“We curled great all week and we made a lot of shots when we needed to,” Sutherland said. “It was a unfortunate way to finish up in the last end when our rock picked on us as it came down the ice, but that’s the way curling goes sometimes.”
“I think the biggest key to our success during the week was our communication,” Reid added. “It’s improved quite a lot from where we were at as a team when the season began and that makes things a lot easier for all four of us.”
When asked what the key game was for the foursome, Sutherland and Reid both pointed to their opening round-robin contest Monday when they came away with a 6-5 extra-end win over a Prairie Central rink that was skipped by Jay Bindig of Kuroki.
“We knew that there was going to be a ton of close games this week as so many of these teams have done well all year long,” Reid said. “It was important for us to get a win early, especially in a game that came down to the last rock.”
“I think our only saviour was being able have the hammer in the extra end,” Sutherland added. “It was huge for us to get going in the right direction in a short tournament like this, otherwise you have to play catch up for the rest of the week.”
Wednesday’s gold medal win for the Bernath rink, which also included third Brayden Grindheim, second David Baum and lead Ryan Johnson, was a nice bounce-back for the Saskatoon squad as they lost 7-6 thriller to Sutherland earlier in the week.
“Cody was making every draw in that first game so our approach to the final was to try and make him throw a few more hits,” Bernath said. “We kept it a little more clean in the final and that allowed us to make more shots.
“We went in this final treating it like just another game and we didn’t put any extra pressure on ourselves. I think it’s starting to sink in for everyone on the team that we have won a gold medal here.”
With a successful first year as a team under their books, the Sutherland rink will now be gearing up for a busy 2018-19 season.
“We’ll have six months to train together, so that’s a good base to start off from,” Sutherland said.
“Our first major event will be in the fall when the top six teams from this week will be playing in the Canada Winter Games qualifier. After that, we’ll have the Under 18 playdowns and the junior playdowns to compete in once again.”
The bronze medal on the male side was won by Lautsch’s South West rink as they picked up a 7-3 win over Logan Ede’s squad from Regina.
It was a double gold medal win in the curling events for Saskatoon as Madison Kleiter won the female final Saturday by a score of 7-4 over the South West rink skipped by Skylar Ackerman of Chamberlain.
The bronze medal went a Lakeland rink skipped by Brooklyn Fahl of Rosthern as they defeated Warman’s Amy Remeshylo and her Prairie Central team in a 6-3 affair.
The Rivers West rink, which featured skip Kelsey Sommerfeld of Allan, third Lian Wood of Rosetown, second Taylor Wenzel of Rosetown and lead Anna Rumpf of North Battleford, finished in eighth place with a 1-4 record.
