Griffins go perfect at ACAC Winter Regional, advance to championship as top women's rink

Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – Although there was a target on their backs, MacEwan's women's rink held onto first place by completing the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference Curling Winter Regional with a perfect 6-0 record at the Avonair Curling Club on Sunday.

As a result, they'll head into the ACAC Championship Feb. 22-24 as the team to beat after finishing both regional events with a combined 11-1 record.

"Considering we lost last year, we're pretty ready to go and try to win it this year," said skip Ashton Simard of their ACAC silver medal in 2018.

"We're definitely in a better position than we were last year. I think we were third going into the provincials last year, so we've moved up. It's pretty much the same team, so we're just trying to build on what we accomplished last year."

Simard and her rink of third Erin Wells, second Andie Kurjata and alternating leads Taitan Hagglund and Rebecca Bartz, entered the weekend in first in the standings at 5-1. They rattled off six wins at their home facility.

"They never gave up," said coach Brian Lupul. "They very consistently played well.

"In this game, you can miss shots. Everybody misses shots. It never bothered them.

"It seemed like because we were No. 1 from the last round, teams got up a little more for us, which is OK. We had some excellent competition, there's some good teams here.

"The women, I'm quite proud of them."

MacEwan skip Ashton Simard calls a shot on Sunday at the Avonair Curling Club (Robert Antoniuk photo).

MacEwan beat Concordia (6-4), Lakeland (9-2), NAIT (5-3), Olds (6-4), RDC (6-4) and UAA (5-4) to wrap up first place.

"Anybody can win," said Lupul of the ACAC Championship. "This is our home rink, so we're a little more familiar with it. It will be a bigger test going to Olds. I am quite confident that the women (will have success). Over the last three years they've improved vastly. They're all quality. We don't have a weak player."

NAIT (8-4), RDC (7-5) and UAlberta-Augusta - which won a tiebreaker 5-7 teams over Olds College on Sunday evening - will join the Griffins at the ACAC Championship. Concordia (4-8) and Lakeland (2-10) were eliminated.

MacEwan's men's rink went 2-4 at the Winter Regional to finish 3-9 overall and failed to qualify. Still, their fate officially came down to the final draw of the event on Sunday afternoon.  They needed to beat Concordia and have UAlberta-Augustana knock off Lakeland one sheet to their right to sneak into a tiebreaker for the fourth and final spot.

Neither happened. Their 6-3 loss was largely academic after Lakeland crushed Augustana 8-0 in four ends.

MacEwan's men's rink of skip Riley Ross, third Jordan Geiger, second Brandon Rubisch and lead Zale Zabolotniuk beat Lakeland (7-3) and Olds (10-5) on the event's opening day, giving themselves a chance. But losses to RDC (7-1) and UAA (8-1) on Saturday set up a tough Sunday for them against undefeated NAIT (7-2 loss) and Concordia.

"We had to do a couple of things," said coach Tom Kitagawa of their playoff chances. "That game against Augustana yesterday was pivotal. We had to win that and then if we could split the games today (we'd have a chance).

"We played well and then we didn't play so well," he said of the loss to Augustana that really cost them. "That was what hurt us. There wasn't any consistency."

Which is to be expected out of a team full of student-athletes in their first year of eligibility, who spent the season in a learning curve that will help them in the future.

"They curled really well," summed up Kitagawa. "Yesterday was a bit of a struggle. We'd make one and then kind of not make the second one. That just came back to hurt us, just like today – little misses here and there and it just kind of ate us up."

MacEwan's men's rink (left to right): coach Tom Kitagawa, Zale Zabolotniuk, Brandon Rubisch, Jordan Geiger and Riley Ross (Robert Antoniuk photo).

NAIT topped the men's competition, going a perfect 6-0 at the Winter Regional and will take an undefeated 12-0 record into the provincials. The rink of Trygge Jensen, Jonah Tobinski, Bret Winfield, John Ritchie and JJ Crowder be joined by Concordia (9-3), RDC (7-5) and Lakeland (5-7) at the ACAC Championship.

"So, we've got to get ready. This means nothing now," said coach Jules Owchar. "I've been at both ends – just crawl in and get it and I've been 10-0 and lose out, so it's a tough one."

The UAA Vikings topped the mixed event standings at 8-2 after going 4-1 at the Avonair.

The team of skip Allyson Hamilton, third Dustin Rupertus, second Nadia vanBruinessen and lead Jackson Sweder rolled to victories over Lakeland (5-3), Olds (6-4), Portage (8-2) and RDC (5-3) and lost to NAIT (5-3) on the weekend.

"We've had a different skip each bonspiel, but both were very aggressive," said coach Andrew McIntosh. "This weekend, Allyson Hamilton was our skip. She played a very clean and aggressive game. She did it very well and the team supported her with that, so that was key."

UAA will be joined at the ACAC Championship by fellow qualifiers Lakeland (7-3), NAIT (7-3) and RDC (5-5). MacEwan didn't field a mixed team this season.