The first U-21 Manitoba Junior Championships under the new sponsorship of Co-ops of Manitoba starts Thursday morning (February 27) at the Brandon Curling Club.
The current U-18 Manitoba champions skipped by Nash Sugden (Morden) and Caitlyn McPherson (Gimli) will be attempting to win their second championships of the season. TheU-18 finalist team skipped by Karys Buchalter (West St. Paul) will also be challenging with valuable experience gained as the Manitoba 2 entry at the recent National U-18 event.
Last year’s champion Shaela Hayward (Carman) returns with third Keira Krahn from her defending champion team. The 2024 Manitoba Junior champion team of Jordon McDonald were in their final year of eligibility so were unable to return.
Cassidy Dundas and her Heather team are the top ranked team in the pre-event seeding by the competing teams. Hayward, who also won the 2024 U-18 Manitoba and Canadian Championship, is the second seed in the Junior Women’s Championship while McPherson is ranked #3.
The eleven-team Junior Women’s competition includes three teams from Winnipeg’s Heather Curling Club (Bethany Allan, Rylie Buchalter, Cassidy Dundas) with single entries from Carman (Shaela Hayward), East St. Paul (Hannah Patton), Elmwood (Samantha Eagles), Gimli (Caitlyn McPherson), Gladstone (Lily Stewart), Springfield (Julia Van Ryssel), West St. Paul (Karys Buchalter) and Virden (Tiffany Brown).
The Junior Men’s division is unseeded as they will play a full round-robin. Notable among the teams are three with skips who have already won Manitoba titles. This includes Sugden, Jace Freeman (2023 U-18 champion), and Rylan Campbell (2024 U-18 champion and U20 Mixed Doubles champion).
The seven-team Junior Men’s event includes teams from seven different clubs; Brandon (Owen Girouard), Heather (Liam Burton), Morden (Nash Sugden), Morris (Zach Norris), Selkirk (Rylan Campbell), West St. Paul (Logan Strand), and Virden (Jace Freeman).
