The Hapnot curling Kweens are heading to provincials after successfully defending their Zone 11 title in The Pas last weekend.
In the six-team all-northern tournament Jan. 26-27 at The Pas Curling Club, Hapnot came in as defending champions. The tournament would be built as a six-team bracket, with the three winners advancing to play each other for the banner.
Hapnot started by playing one of two teams representing the host Margaret Barbour Collegiate (MBCI) Spartans from The Pas, winning 13-4 over one of the teams.
That led to a matchup between the Kweens and Snow Lake’s Joseph H. Kerr Tigers, who advanced by upsetting one of two teams from Thompson’s R. D. Parker Collegiate Trojans. There would be no glass slipper for the Cinderella team though - the Kweens handed the Tigers a 14-0 loss to enter the finals, against the second MBCI team Saturday.
The Spartans would give Hapnot a scare, upsetting them 9-4 in a final game, but the format of the tournament allowed for a second, winner-take-all game later in the afternoon between the two teams. There, the Kweens flipped the script for their own 9-4 win over MBCI, claiming the banner for another year.
The Kweens have seven players eligible for their team - Grade 9 Hannah Mohr-Graham, Grade 10 Teslynn Beauchamp, Grade 11s Niki Keramydas, Mackenzie McLean and Nevaya Simard and Grade 12s Brooke Baynton and Sara Burbidge.
Hapnot’s Kweens curling squad will now head to Winnipeg for Manitoba high school provincials Feb. 8-10, hosted by College Jeanne-Sauve and taking place at the Heather Curling Club in St-Boniface.
Boys
Hapnot didn’t have quite as much luck on the boys’ side of zones, coming up just short of a double victory.
Two Kings teams were entered into the three-team tournament, facing one squad from MBCI - representing Hapnot were the black team with Rylan Antoniw, Ashton Church, Drayden Lowe and Bobby Smith and the red team with Eric Law, Jave McKay, Bradley Powell and Braeden Tetlock.
In the first game of the weekend, MBCI beat the Kings black team 9-0 Jan. 26, then came back and beat the Kings red team 13-3.
With MBCI taking the top seed, the two Hapnot squads faced each other to see who would play them in the zone finals. Red ended up beating black 9-4 to earn their shot at the zone banner Saturday morning.
When push came to shove, the Spartans were too much for red to overcome, winning 9-4 and keeping the zone banner in The Pas. MBCI will now head to provincials to represent Zone 11, while both Kings teams will end their high school seasons. One graduating student, Smith, has now played his final high school curling tournament - the other seven players can all return to play next season.
MBCI’s team will head to Winnipeg for provincials later this month.
