Bronze women curl their way to bronze
Men finish seventh in Canada after winning gold at Ontario championships
It took just six ends for Brock University’s women’s curling team to win a bronze medal at the USPORTS/Curling Canada championships Wednesday in Alberta.
The Badgers, led by fourthyear skip Terri Weeks from McDougall, Ont., near Parry Sound, hammered Mount Allison 12-2 before the two teams shook hands after the sixth end at the Leduc Recreation Centre just outside of Edmonton.
It gave Brock its first medal at the nationals since 2012, and the fourth since head coach Murray Etherington joined the curling program nine years ago.
“They really elevated their game,” Etherington said. “What we discussed coming into the competition was that we knew there would be strong teams, and that we would have to take a few chances when the opportunities came along.
“And that’s what they did.” After going 5-2 in the roundrobin, the Badgers lost an 8-7 heartbreaker in the semifinals Tuesday night to Thompson Rivers University from Kamloops, B.C.
Brock rebounded from that setback by jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the bronze medal game. The Badgers extended their lead to 6-0 by the third end and then stole five in the fourth end on their way to the victory.
Weeks, Jessica Humphries, Marcia Richardson, Joanna Francolini and alternate Jeanette Burnside, shot a combined 83 per cent in their final match together.
Weeks, who will return to Brock for a fifth year in 2018-19, was named a first-team All-Canadian at skip after throwing a tournament-best 77 per cent.
She played the vice position before being called upon by Etherington to skip the Brock rink.
“She has worked hard at it,” he said. “In terms of her progression, I would have expected this performance from her next year.
“I would say she’s probably a year ahead of where we thought she would be.”
Brock went into the national championships with the women winning bronze at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) finals
and the men winning gold.
The Brock men team opened the Canadian championships with an 11-6 win over University of New Brunswick, but struggled after that and finished the tournament with a 2-5 record.
That meant a seventh place overall finish for the men’s team consisting of skip Eric Bradey, Jamie Waters, Nick Lemieux, Ben Hughes and alternate Doug Thomson.
“For the men, after finishing bronze at the OUAs two years in a row, their big goal was to get to the gold medal game,” Etherington said. “They got there and they won it.
“So as much as you try to refocus for the Nationals, I think they were just a little bit off. In other tournaments you might be able to get away with that, but at the nationals, everyone is strong.”
Hughes, a St. Catharines native, was named a second-team All-Canadian at lead after shooting 84 per cent in the men’s tournament.
‘‘
So as much as you try to refocus for the Nationals, I think they were just a
little bit off.
MURRAY ETHERINGTON
Brock coach