Two years after food poisoning hurt their results, Griffins return to nationals aiming for a medal

Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – Two years ago, Ashton Simard prepared all season for the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association Curling Championship, only to travel all the way to London, Ont. and lay in a hotel room bed.

Unfortunately, food poisoning struck the MacEwan Griffins' curler down after one day of competition at the 2016 nationals, leaving her out of commission for three matches. The Griffins lost all three and missed the playoffs with a 3-4 record.

"I was definitely disappointed because I'm a competitor and I like to play," said Simard, who played third for the Griffins in 2016, but is now the team's skip. "It was definitely out of my control. I did go in the morning and tried to play the first game, but I only lasted three ends and I couldn't do it, so I went back to the hotel and rested up."

The redemption portion of the story will be written this weekend as Simard leads MacEwan's women's rink back to the CCAA championship for the first time since after they failed to qualify last season. This time it's right in their backyard at Leduc's Ken's Furniture and Robinson's Arenas (March 24-28).

The Griffins will be one of eight CCAA teams in the competition, joining ACAC foes Red Deer College and NAIT, and five others from across the country: Fanshawe, Camosun, Holland College, Fleming and Niagara. Play begins on Saturday (1 p.m.) and runs co-currently with the U SPORTS curling championship (opposite draws).

MacEwan kicks off round-robin play against NAIT (1 p.m.) and Holland (9 p.m.) on Saturday. On Sunday, they will then face Niagara (9 a.m.) and Fleming (5 p.m.). On Monday, they go against Camosun (1 p.m.) and Red Deer College (9 p.m.) before closing out the round robin on Tuesday against Fanshawe (9 a.m.).

The top four qualify for the semifinals (Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.). The gold and bronze matches are slated for Wednesday (12 p.m.).

Simard and her rink of third Erin Wells, second Andie Kurjata, lead Sara Fraser and alternate Hilary Charlie qualified for the nationals by winning a silver medal at last month's ACAC Championship in Camrose. There's no doubt they have the talent to be in the medal hunt in Leduc.

"I had medal hopes right after I saw tryouts," said MacEwan head coach Tom Kitagawa. "A lot of it will be how well they adapt. We're playing in a different kind of a venue. That will make a bit of a difference for a lot of players.

"We finished second overall in the ACAC, so the ability is there," he continued. "It's like any team, if you play poorly at the wrong time you lose."

While there isn't too much they can control off the ice, other than really watching what they eat – "You can get food poisoning anywhere," noted the coach – on the ice, how quickly they adjust to playing in an arena will certainly factor into their success this weekend.

"The ice is different," said Kitagawa. "We've been working on it the last six months. We know what to expect.

"I have a lot of friends who have experienced coaching and playing at that level. They've told me a whole pile of things over the years and now I'm bringing it to the fore.

"We've been doing a lot of practice in preparing for the difference in ice."

The other adjustment will be going from the eight-end games they're used to at provincials to the 10-end matches they'll face at nationals.

"This is our first round of 10-end games, so we've got to be mentally prepared to play all 10," said Simard. "Just being in the big competition, playing some of the best teams (from across the country) and knowing that we can compete with them, it's good going into this weekend."

Kurjata was named to the ACAC All Conference team at the second position last month, which gives her confidence that not only does she have the game to compete at a high level, but so does the team.

"It was so exciting," she said. "I feel just this year compared to last season, we've all put in a lot of work. Just to be able to get recognized for that is amazing. It gave a little confidence moving forward. Hopefully we can continue at the same level of play moving on."

The Griffins rink has had to build chemistry over time as they hail from all over the place. Simard is from tiny Chauvin, AB – 265 km southeast of Edmonton – while Wells made the trip to MacEwan from her hometown of Fort McMurray. Kurjata is from Meadow Lake, Sask., and Charlie is miles from her home in Inuvik, NWT. Fraser is the only "local" as she gets to compete in her hometown of Leduc this weekend.

"It almost kind of helps," said Kurjata of the geographical variety on the squad. "No one's used to the city, no one lives around here. We try to go out and do things together and experience different things. We're all just kind of in the same boat in that way."

In that regard, they've become like a family. This weekend, they can draw on the fact that they'll have plenty of supporters coming out to watch.

"We've got a lot of family and friends coming out, so it feels like it's home," said Simard. "We're going to have the atmosphere behind us."

Home cooking. There's nothing like it.

FROM THE HACK … Curling Canada is hosting the event as part of a larger extravaganza called Curl4Canada … The men's CCAA teams competing include UAlberta-Augustana (Simard's brother Colton is the third on that team), Concordia, Douglas, Fanshawe, NAIT, Niagara, Red Deer College and Sault … The U SPORTS Canadian University championship will feature teams from Alberta, Brock, Memorial, Mount Allison, Queen's, Regina, Thompson Rivers, Wilfred Laurier, Dalhousie, New Brunswick, Ryerson, Waterloo and Winnipeg … The Curl4Canada extravaganza in Leduc will also include the Canadian Wheelchair Championship March 26 to April 1 and the Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship March 28 to April 1.