Local organizers of the upcoming 2023 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championships (March 21st – 26th – Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex) were quite likely smiling from ear to ear last Sunday morning.
Heading into the NOCA Provincial final at the Idylwylde Golf & Country Club, it was already a given that there would be some local content at nationals in Sudbury. Tracy Fleury and little brother Jake Horgan had safely navigated their way through the “A” event , posting wins over Sophie Paquette/Matthew Hunt (7-6), Joanne Forget/Jeffrey Brown (12-5), Jen Gates/Tyler Langlois (10-5) and Amanda Gates/Trevor Bonot (7-5).
The remaining finalists, Abby Deschene/Mike Assad, would arrive somewhat more circuitously, dropping their opening match to Mya Smith/Olivier Bonin-Ducharme (9-7), then getting on a roll in the “B” Event with victories over Michelle MacLeod/Tyler Wilson (8-3), Forget/Brown (8-6), Nicole Westlund-Stewart/Tyler Stewart (9-6) but falling Tracy Chandler/Jordan Chandler (8-6).
Down to their last life, the local tandem of Deschene and Assad (Deschene is a graduate of Lockerby Composite and long-time Sudbury native while Assad moved down from Thunder Bay a few years back, now leading up the curling programs at the Idylwylde) earned the “C” Event nod by getting the better of Jami Bowman/Chris Bowman (8-2) and the Chandlers, 10-9 in an extra end.
On Sunday morning, the Deschene/Assad pairing stopped Gates/Langlois 7-1 and were up 5-4 in the final after five ends before Fleury and Horgan stormed back, scoring three with the hammer in the sixth and adding a steal of two in the seventh to secure a 9-5 win and a chance to compete at a Canadian Championship in front of hometown family and friends.
With Fleury set to begin play with Team Homan at the Scotties this weekend and Horgan joining his brother (Tanner) and their NOCA gold medal winning team at the Brier in March, Team Fleurgan (if you will) managed to excel in their first ever event as a mixed doubles team.
“It’s quite a different pace and there’s different nerves that comes into play compared to four person (curling),” said Jake Horgan. “You have that much less of a team out there and the fact is that when you get out on the ice for those big games, you rely on your teammates quite a bit to help settle those nerves.”
Given a March schedule that now includes the Brier, the U Sports Championships (as a member of the Laurentian Voyageurs team) and the Mixed Doubles nationals, Horgan is trying to give each bonspiel its due respect, all while acknowledging that there is still a fundamental underlying variance in the manner in which most of the curling community approach each competition.
“For most of the competitive curlers out there, their main event is still the four person – that’s what they work for all year,” said Horgan. “The Brier and Scotties are definitely a little more special.”
Still, this will be the one and only chance to hit the ice at Canadians with his sister, an ultra accomplished curler who he came to appreciate even more over the course of the weekend. “It’s impressive how she handles big moments, either good or bad moments,” he said. “When we are on a roll and making a lot of great shots, her ability to maintain the good atmosphere is there.”
“And in those moments, after a couple of bad misses, she is really good at picking up our team and getting us back into a good mental state to perform.”
The family duet may yet welcome another member of the family to the party as Tanner Horgan and partner Keira McLaughlin compete at the Ontario Mixed Doubles Championships next weekend.
Looking back on nationals that have passed, a pair of local rinks have added another chapter to their book of noteworthy curling experiences. Team Rajala (Brendan Rajala, Jackson Dubinsky, Jesse Crozier, Adam Wiersma) would post a round robin record of 4-2, earning a berth in the A quarter-final.
They dropped an 8-4 decision there to Brayden Snow (Prince Edward Island), bounced back to beat Raphael Tremblay of Québec (6-4) but were edged 5-4 in their final game by Nicholas Rowe (Ontario). “We didn’t have any really bad games but we didn’t have any really good games either,” said Rajala, the only member of this rink who could return to compete at the U18 level in 2023-2024.
“I don’t know if we were not focusing or we just couldn’t find any rhythm. We didn’t play our best or our worst. But I think that the more nationals that you go to, the more events that you gain this experience, the better equipped you are going to be.”
And though he was making a second straight appearance at the U18 Canadians, Rajala noted that in many, many ways, this was truly a first for him. “Last year, the event was put together in a hurry,” he said. “It really wasn’t a proper national. This was definitely a different national and I am going to say, for the better; a proper national.”
Also making their second appearance was Team Toner (Mia Toner, Valerie Ouimet, Justine Toner, Clara Dissanayake). Unfortunately, the local girls were fighting an uphill battle almost from the launch of their very first stone, dealing with illnesses en route to a 1-5 round robin mark.
They did get back in the win column with a 7-2 match-up with the Northwest Territories (Kali Skauge) but hit the end of the line courtesy of the Saskatchewan rink skipped by Cara Kesslering, losing 7-4.
At the Ontario Winter Games in Renfrew, the local mixed doubles team of Britney Malette and Ian Deschene earned bronze medals, winning four of their five preliminary round games but beaten in the page matchup semi-final by Paige Bown and Jacob Clarke (8-4).
And back to Fleury and the elite of Canadian women’s curling as the Scotties Tournament of Hearts begins this weekend in Kamloops. Along with the Fleury/Team Homan crew that will represent Ontario (with Kira Brunton along as alternate), local hopes also lie with Kendra Lilly, vice for the Krista McCarville rink that lost in the final one year ago in Thunder Bay.
