When the 2014 Sasktel Tankard Men's Provincial Curling Championship goes underway this week Yorkton and the Parkland area will be represented as two teams are skipped by top local curlers in the field of 16.
Yorkton's rink of Terry Marteniuk, Trevor Mackan, Ray Sharp and Aron Hershmiller earned their way into the tournament following a successful season locally and in the provincial circuit, earning a spot in the pre-playdowns tournament of the best curlers for the 2013/14 season falling short of a qualifying spot up against top qualifiers such as Brock Virtue, Scott Bitz, Kevin Marsh, Darrell McKee, Jeff Hartung and Steve Laycock.
During the playdowns Team Marteniuk would have no such problems, sweeping the field and staking their rightful claim into the bright lights of the Provincial Champion-ship.
Team Marteniuk went 4-0, winning the "A" Event over Bruce Korte 6-4 Saturday evening in Meadow Lake.
Previous Games saw Marteniuk beat Robin Shillington 9-1, Lloyd Fell 9-8, and Shawn Joyce 7-4 setting up the "A" Final against the 2000 and 2007 provincial Champion Korte to finish the year strong and complete their goal of making the championship.
Marteniuk and his team will be hoping to finish off yet another successful year on a high note, as they once again earned a Top 10 provincial ranking this year to make the Players Championship and have been the best team in Yorkton's Superleague along with several undefeated tournaments leading up to the playoff stage.
Losing only to top talent so far during the 2013/14 season, Team Marteniuk has a chance to make noise at the Provincial Champion-ships if they can start claiming some scalps of the best players in the province with early wins this week.
Langenbrug will also be represented as Jeff Hartung's rink was an automatic qualifier for the tournament.
The tournament will be a triple knockout with a page playoff format.
