Junior championships start today

Lenentine looking to defend women’s title

The Pepsi P.E.I. junior men’s and women’s curling championships get underway today at the Maple Leaf Curling Club in O’Leary.

There are four men’s and six women’s teams entered in the respective modified tripleknockout championships. The Lauren Lenentine rink from the Cornwall Curling Club is back with the same lineup that won the 2017 title, looking to repeat.

There will be a new men’s champion, though, as one-half of the Tyler Smith title team from 2017 is competing out-of-province this year.

The respective men’s and women’s champions will represent P.E.I. at the New Holland Canadian Junior Curling Championships Jan. 21-28 in Shawinigan, Que. The provincial championship starts today at 2 p.m. with two men’s games and two women’s teams in the opening draw. The Emily Sanderson rink and the Lauren Ferguson rink both have an opening draw bye. They will see their first action at 6 p.m., Sanderson against the winner of the Annika Kelly/Sydney Howatt 2 p.m. game and Ferguson playing the winner of the Lenentine/ Rachel MacLean game.

The 2 p.m. matchups for the men have the Devin Schut and Mitchell Schut rinks squaring off in one game and Alex MacFadyen playing Chase MacMillan in the other.

The losers from the 2 p.m. men’s draw will meet at 6 p.m. while the winners will play in the A final Thursday at 9:30 a.m.

The women’s A final also goes Thursday at 9:30 a.m.