The two rural Manitoba teams and a pair from the Winnipeg capital region will represent Manitoba at the national U-18 championship when it takes place in Saskatoon in late February.
Each of the CurlManitoba’s Asham U-18 final games Sunday, at the Morden Curling Club, featured a rural team against a Winnipeg area team – showing that, supported by CurlManitoba, local club efforts to grow youth curling across the province are working.
The winners of the two games, the Nash Sugden (Morden) and Caitlyn McPherson (Gimli) teams, are the Manitoba champions for 2024-25. However, thanks to the performance of Manitoba’s champions at last year’s nationals, the finalist teams also earned a national entry.
In the Asham U-18 Women’s Gimli’s McPherson team (Julie Magnusson, Robyn Buchel, Jorja Buhr, Coach Shawn Magnusson) defeated West St. Paul’s Karys Buchalter (Ainslee Card, Amy Buchalter, Eva Le Heiget, Coach Kelsey Meger) 9-5 to win the championship.
Tied 2-2 after four ends, McPherson to Buchalter. McPherson gave up 3 to Buchalter in the fifth end but the Gimli team bounced back to score a three of their own on the sixth and steal two on the seventh to lead by two coming home. They controlled the last end, got a stone buried early and scored two more for the 9-5 final score.
Buchalter and McPherson both finished the round robin with 6W-1L records with Buchalter being awarded the first place bye to the final thanks to a round robin win over McPherson.
McPherson needed an extra end to win the semifinal over Carman’s Kiera Krahn (Bethany Allan, Hannah Smith, Ella Robins, Coach Cal Edie). Krahn finished third in the eight team round robin with a 5W-2L record.
In the Asham U-18 Men’s, Morden’s Nash Sugden team (Tyler Fehr, Tanner Treichel, Ryan Thiessen, Coach Gord Titchkosky) posted a 5-4 win over Heather’s Logan Zacharias team (Rylan Graham, Carter Malmquist, Hudson Strand, Coach Sheldon Zacharias).
Tied 3-3 after 6 ends, Sugden had a shot at a game winning four on the seventh. He rubbed a guard to give up a steal to trail by one coming home – but didn’t have to throw his final stone as Zacharias slid deep in the 12 foot circle with his final stone, facing three.
Sugden and Zacharias both topped their respective pools in the ten-team championship with perfect 4W-0L records. Sugden beat Zacharias to advance to the final while Zacharias won the semifinal 6-3 over Liam Burton-Heather (Tiernan Bertrand-Meadows, Myles Lagadi, Callum Smith, Coach Shelley Bertrand-Meadows). The Burton team reached the semifinal with a first round playoff 5-4 win over St. Vital’s Kieran Callewaert entry (skipped by Luc Cormier, Evan Traczuk, Quinn Lagace, Coach Blaine Malo).
The 2025 Provincial Coaching Award, sponsored by Asham, goes to the coach who best exemplifies attributes of a quality coach as voted on by their peers. The men’s coaching award winner was Gord Titchkosky (Team Sugden) and women’s coaching award winner was Cory Barkley (Team Brown).
