Alameda School’s Team Freitag defeated Weyburn Junior High School’s Team Haupstein in two straight games to win the South East District Junior Mixed Curling Playdown at the Lampman Curling Club on Saturday.
“We found our strengths and our weight and we just kept on drawing them in and putting guards up,” said skip Paige Freitag, who was joined on the team by third Tyren Dorrance, second Shaelyn Walls, lead Austin Hammermeister and coach Tim Freitag.
Team Freitag began the Friday and Saturday tournament with wins over Macoun School, Wawota Parkland School and one of two host teams from Lampman School on the first day of the playdown, before falling to Team Haupstein early Saturday morning putting them in the B-side final of the event. The rink defeated Lampman once again in the B-side final at noon on Saturday setting them up for an A-side versus B-side title game against the Weyburn Junior High rink early Saturday afternoon.
Team Haupstein started off the junior mixed curling playdown by beating the second Alameda School rink and the Estevan Comprehensive School team on Friday, before downing Team Freitag to secure the A-side title. Since Team Freitag had lost once already in the two-loss knockout tournament and Team Haupstein had yet to lose a game, Alameda needed two straight wins to take the title.
In the first game of the A versus B final, Alameda jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first end, where they had the hammer, and then stole two in the second end. They stole another point in the third end to go up 6-0 before Weyburn scored two in the fourth end with the hammer. Alameda ended the game after the fifth end with the hammer on an 8-2 win.
“We had one end and we blanked it just by hitting the rocks out,” said Paige, about their next game against Team Haupstein. “The third end they got one point against us, so that made us a little more nervous for the rest of the game.”
Team Freitag jumped ahead 6-1 after the fourth end, before stealing another three in the fifth end to take the title with a 9-1 win.
“The Weyburn team was just struggling with their weight,” said Team Haupstein coach Pamela Haupstein, noting she is proud of how her rink of skip Jaylynn Haupstein, third Kobe Kmita, second Makenna Linq and lead Oleg Vilcee played throughout the tournament. “They were just a little heavy and couldn’t get the rocks in the house.”
Paige said their great showing in the final compared to the early Saturday morning loss to the Weyburn Junior High rink came down to finding the right draw weight and staying on top of it. She said having to play four games on Saturday and three games on Friday to win the title did result in some pretty sore feet, but coming together and working as a team in the 11-rink tournament helped make the busy weekend worthwhile.
“It was really good,” she said. “All the teams were so nice and you could talk to them. The hosting team was really nice. They’re friendly. We like to come here.”
