rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
Julia Bakos and Cortland Sonnenberg grabbed hold of the first qualifiers at the Curling Alberta Optimist U18 Provincial Championships after a pair of wildly close matchups on Friday afternoon at the Medicine Hat Curling Club.
Bakos rebounded from a slow start by taking three in the fourth end before holding on for a 7-6 victory over Jessica Wytrychowski’s squad, while Sonnenberg battled back-and-forth with Nathan Molberg before stealing a 5-4 win on the final rock.
“It really started to curl at the end,” said Sonnenberg of his final shot. “Out of my hand I thought it was a hair-bit heavy but the sweepers liked it so they just kept their brooms on it and it ended up tee-lined.”
Molberg jumped out to 1-0 lead in the second end of the A final, but Sonnenberg’s squad – including lead Adam Elsenheimer, second Jaxon Hiebert and third Owen Fenske – bounced back with two in the third. While Molberg followed suit with two in the fourth to take back the lead, Sonnenberg answered with singles in the fifth and sixth. Molberg again knotted things back up in the seventh, but Sonnenberg’s team held on to secure the first qualifier.
We just kept making back-and-forth shots. It was really close the whole way through and I just loved it. The guys were great, our opponents were awesome and the mentality was awesome,” said Sonnenberg, whose squad hails from Grande Prairie. “It’s an 11-hour drive to Medicine Hat, so we came a long way and we’ve been working hard all year. I’m glad to see it paid off.”
Bakos says her squad was expecting a stiff test from Wytrychowski in the A final, and that’s exactly what they got. After falling into a 2-0 hole after the first end, Bakos rebounded to take two in the second before adding three in the fourth for a 5-3 lead. Wytrychowski knotted things back up in the fifth, then Bakos took singles in the six and seventh before holding Wytrychowski to one in the eighth to secure the narrow victory.
“We know we prepared well for this. We knew we just had to stack them and put the pressure on. We played perfect that last end, I’m really happy with the team,” said Bakos. “We’re very excited to get into the 1-2 game, but we know we need to keep our cool.”
Bakos says she and teammates Juliana Mackenzie (lead) and Quinn Prodaniuk (third) have competed together on the national and provincial stage a number of times, while second Kim Bonneau seems to a perfect addition to the foursome this weekend.
“The three of us went to the Canada Games, me Juliana and Quinn, then we picked up Kim to come play on our U18 team,” said Bakos, adding Alyssa Nedohin, who is skipping her own squad at this weekend’s tournament, helped them to a fifth place finish at the Canada Games. “We’ve been together a few times. We won the Banff U18 spiel and almost won the Crestwood. We’re getting along great.”
Connor Zeidell’s squad – the only local team active in the tournament, including lead Kolby MacDonald, second Bryson Helmle and third Cole Lewis – slipped into the C Event after falling 7-3 to Nicolas Oake Friday afternoon. Zeidell opened Thursday with a 3-1 win over Aaron Power to advance into their afternoon game against Oake. The local rink returns to the sheets Saturday at 9 a.m. against Ben Hill in the C Event. The winning team will earn the third qualifying seed.
Oake will face Molberg for the boys’ second qualifier Saturday at 9 a.m. while Power will take on Lane Missel at the same time for a berth into the fourth qualifier game.
On the girls’ side, Wytrychowski and Jacques will battle it out for the second qualifier, while Zoe Cinnamon and Ryleigh Bakker will play for the third qualifier Saturday at 9 a.m. and Alyssa Nedohin and Subasthika Thangadurai will play for a spot in the fourth qualifier, all on Saturday at 9 a.m.
Sonnenberg and Bakos await their opponents for Saturday’s 2 p.m. semifinal, while the second semifinal draw is set for Sunday at 9:30 a.m., followed by the championship at 2:30 p.m.
