CURLING Skip aiming for record 3rd junior women’s title

Karlee Burgess already boasts national and world titles on her junior curling resume.

A championship at the 2020 Canadian playdowns can give her yet another achievement: a recordbreaking third women’s national title at the event.

The 21-year-old University of Manitoba kinesiology student is representing a different province this time around. She previously won out of Nova Scotia as a second with Mary Fay (2016) and Kaitlyn Jones (2018), but moved to Manitoba in the off-season to play with Mackenzie Zacharias.

“We just kind of clicked together and we’ve all become best friends,” Burgess said. “It’s been super smooth and it’s just been so easy with these girls.”

Round-robin play begins Saturday at the George Preston Recreation Centre in Langley, B.C.

Joining Burgess for the move from Nova Scotia was lead Lauren Lenentine, an alternate for the Jones team at the 2018 worlds. Zacharias’s younger sister, Emily, rounds out the lineup at second and their father, Sheldon, serves as coach.

“All four of them have the same goals,” he said. “They have strong commitment to the game and strong commitment to teamwork and to making sure that the team’s goals come first.”

There will be a new men’s champion after threetime winner Tyler Tardi of B.C. joined the men’s ranks. Northern Ontario’s Jacob Horgan, Nova Scotia’s Graeme Weagle and Saskatchewan’s Rylan Kleiter are expected to be contenders.

Yukon and Nunavut were unable to field men’s teams for this event. Organizers filled out the 14team field by adding extra teams from Manitoba and B.C.

The winning teams will represent Canada at the Feb. 15-22 world junior curling championships in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.

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