Reid Carruthers and his Granite team (BJ Neufeld, Catlin Schneider, Connor Njegovan, Coach Rob Meakin, Fifth Kyle Doering) have won the 2025 Viterra Championship, the 100th Manitoba Men’s curling championship.
The top seed in the championship, the Carruthers foursome had to win a semi-final and final game Sunday to earn Carruthers his ninth championship (2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2024), a fourth for Neufeld (2016, 2017, 2023), and third for Njegovan (2020, 2024). It is a first Manitoba title for Schneider, a Saskatchewan resident.
The final game against #3 seed Braden Calvert and his Fort Rouge team (Corey Chambers, Kyle Kurz, Brendan Bilawka) looked to be decided as early as the third end when Carruthers scored a four to go with a stolen two on the opening end and lead 6-1. There was no quit in the Calvert team – they fought back to trail 8-7 coming home and challenged Carruthers right to the end but the game did end without the winners having to throw their final stone.
The morning semi-final against Brett Walter – Assiniboine Memorial (JT Ryan, Graham McFarlane, Hugh McFarlane) was tied 5-5 coming home with Carruthers scoring a single with the hammer for victory.
No matter what happened Sunday afternoon in Portage la Prairie, the 2025 Viterra Champion was going to be a team with at least some Canadian championship experience.
Reid Caruthers skipped the most experienced team in the final three with two Canadian and world men’s champions: Carruthers (2011) and BJ Neufeld (2019 representing Alberta). As noted above, Carruthers has won eight previous provincial men’s titles. He also won a juniors (2003) and a Mixed (2008). Neufeld won three Manitoba Juniors (2004, 2005 & 2007) along with his three Manitoba Men’s titles (2016, 2017 & 2023); lead Connor Njegovan has a junior title (2010) and the two Men’s championships (2020 & 2024). Fifth Kyle Doering won Manitoba junior titles in 2012 and 2016 and the Canadian juniors in 2016. Coach Rob Meakin won a pair of Manitoba Men’s titles in 1995 and 2001 and in 1995 won both the Brier and World Championship. He also won a pair of Manitoba Mixed titles (1988, 1989) and a Canadian Mixed in 1988.
