SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. - The Humber men's team remains unbeaten after two days of competition at the 2022 Ontario Colleges Athletic Association Curling Championships.
The Humber Hawks defeated the Fanshawe Falcons 8-5 before a narrow 8-7 victory over the Mohawk Mountaineers in extra ends to improve to 4-0. Humber is made up of skip Zack Shurtleff (Burlington, Ont.), vice Austin Snyder (Brantford, Ont.), second Matthew Garner (Toronto, Ont.) and lead Jacob Dobson (Haliburton, Ont.), with Brendan Jackson (Pincourt, Ont.) as alternate.
Despite the perfect start, Humber requires one more victory to secure first place in the round robin, with only the Niagara Knights standing in the way. Niagara is 4-1 at the competition with wins against Confederation (7-6) and Sault (6-0) on Saturday. Niagara is skipped by Nathan Lohnes (Halifax, N.S.) with teammates Kyle Henry (Elmira, Ont.) and Adam Rolson (Kitchener, Ont.). Humber squares off against Niagara at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Humber still leads the women's standings, but not before suffering its first loss to Niagara 9-6. The Hawks, skipped by Meaghan Mallett (Waterloo, Ont.) have a 4-1 record heading into Day 3, with Niagara and Fanshawe hot on their tails with 3-2 marks. All three teams will advance to the medal round as they jockey for position. Niagara and Fanshawe are skipped by Melissa Borowski (Welland, Ont.) and Lauren Massey (London, Ont.), respectively.
The mixed doubles curling competition sees the Humber-2 duo of Julie Boulos (Mississauga, Ont.) and Emerson Steffler (Markham, Ont.) with a 3-1 record, with the Mohawk Mountaineers a half game back at 2-1. Both teams split their head-to-head games in the round robin, including a 7-6 win for Humber-2 in extra ends on Saturday. Mohawk takes on Humber-1 in the only mixed doubles round robin game on Sunday.
The final round robin draw will take place at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Community First Curling Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., followed by semi-final games at 6:30 p.m. The event runs through Monday.
The event features student-athletes from Confederation College (Thunder Bay); Fanshawe College (London); Humber College (Etobicoke); Mohawk College (Hamilton); Niagara College (Welland); and host Sault. The championship consists of mixed doubles, men's and women's team competitions.
All participating schools have a men's team competing in a single round robin competition, while Fanshawe, Humber, Niagara and Sault are competing in a double round robin women's competition. For this year's event, teams may include three or four curlers.
Mixed doubles, which debuted at the 2020 championships, feature two teams from Humber and one from Mohawk. The three teams are competing in a double round robin.
A total of eight draws will take place over four days of competition, including playoffs. The top four men's teams will advance to the semi-finals, while the top teams in the women's and mixed doubles competition advance directly to the championship. Women's and mixed doubles semi-finals will be contested between the second and third-place teams.
Gold medal games and the men's bronze medal game will take place on the final morning of competition on Feb. 21. There will be no Canadian Colleges Athletic Association championship this season.
It marks the ninth occasion that the OCAA Curling Championships will take place in the Soo, the last time being in 2018. Spectators will be permitted following the rules of the Community First Curling Centre and public health regulations.
Championship Website (including schedule): www.ocaa.com/curl
- OCAA -
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