Local rink wins 2023 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship
It was a storybook performance for the hometown rink at the 2023 Mixed Curling Championships in Swift Current last week.
The local foursome of lead Teejay Haichert, second Chris Haichert, third Kelly Schafer, and skip Shaun Meachem won their final 11 games to claim the national championship on home ice.
“It’s pretty emotional actually,” said Meachem. “It was a super intense game, an intense week. It was kind of fun, but high energy the whole time. It started off, personally a little slow out of the gate, but just sort of ramped things up through the week and felt really good going into the final.”
Saskatchewan defeated Manitoba 6-4 in the championship game on Saturday afternoon in front of a standing room only crowd at the Innovationplex.
“That’s pretty cool. You don’t get a chance everyday to represent your province and to now represent your country, but to do it on home ice, now to be taking Kelly back to Scotland for her to be on home ice to represent Canada is pretty cool too,” said Meachem.
The Swift Current rink will now represent Canada at the 2024 World Mixed Curling Championship in Aberdeen, Scotland on Oct. 12-19, 2024.
Teejay and Chris Haichert both represented Canada at the 2015 World Mixed Curling Championship in Bern, Switzerland with skip Max Kirkpatrick.
Curling has come full circle for Schafer, who once represented Scotland at the 2010 World Championship in Swift Current.
“It’s just so special, especially since it’s so close to my hometown,” said an emotional Schafer after the win. “It seems like it’s been a long time
coming. I’ll be proud to represent Team Canada and that’ll be a new thing for me. The first Canada jacket I’ve had since all the other ones are Scottish.”
After moving to Swift Current, Schafer was not eligible to represent Canada at the international level for a number of years.
“It’s pretty exciting,” she said. “I’ve played with these guys since I came here. They’re my first mixed team and it was the only thing I was allowed to play. For 10 years or something, Shaun and I have been playing skip and third and now with Teejay and Chris, yeah, it’s cool.”
Saskatchewan topped Pool A with a 5-1 record after opening the event with an 8-6 loss to Nova Scotia. Saskatchewan
rebounded with a 7-3 win over Prince Edward Island and a 10-9 win over Quebec on Monday. Tuesday, Saskatchewan defeated Yukon 10-2 in their only game. Wednesday, Saskatchewan added a 6-5 win over Ontario and an 11-3 victory over Northern Ontario to
wrap up the round robin.
Thursday, Saskatchewan opened the Championship Pool against New Brunswick and emerged with a 5-3 win. They followed up with an 8-4 win over Alberta that evening.
Saskatchewan added an 8-4 win over the
Northwest Territories on Friday afternoon and then closed out the Championship Pool with an 11-2 win over Manitoba to claim top spot.
Saturday, they rematched with Nova Scotia and won the semifinal 9-4 to avenge their only loss.