Randy Neufeld and his La Salle team have won Manitoba’s Strathcona Trust Senior Men’s Championship, with a 7-2 victory Monday afternoon at Heather Curling Club over Dave Boehmer – Petersfield. It is a record setting fifth championship for Neufeld and three of his La Salle teammates Dean Moxham, Peter Nicholls and Dale Michie.
They had previously shared the record with Boehmer (2018, 2019, 2020, 2023) and Lloyd Gunnlaugson who is still the only skip to win four consecutive senior titles (1982, 1983, 1984, 1985).
Boehmer and his lead George Hacking were attempting to win their fifth senior title while Dale Lott, Sean Bracken, and alternate Scott Szydlik were trying for their second consecutive.
The two teams had met earlier in the Page 1-1 Playoff game when Neufeld defeated the defending champion to drop them into the Monday morning semi-final. Boehmer readily won that semi-final over Dean Dunstone’s Granite foursome to set up the re-match.
The final was all-Neufeld for the first four ends with his team scoring four consecutive singles. Boehmer manufactured a deuce but Neufeld put three more on the board with the hammer on the sixth end and the Boehmer team conceded.
In the preliminary round, Boehmer was undefeated (7W-0L) while Neufeld lost one one game (6W-1L).
Behind Neufeld in the Asham pool, Murray Warren – Brandon also had a 6W-1L record while Mike Mahon – Granite was awarded third place on the basis of the tiebreaker, which is the total of the best 12 draws thrown before the round-robin games to determine who will have last stone in the games.
Behind Boehmer in the Asham Ultra Force pool, Paul Scinocca – Charleswood and Dunstone both had 5W-2L records. Scinocca was awarded second place based on his round robin win over Dunstone.
Dunstone beat Warren and Mahon beat Scinocca in the crossover qualifier games which were followed by a Dunstone win over Mahon to reach the semifinal against Boehmer.
Neufeld and his team won the Strathcona Senior Men’s in 2015 and 2016 and again in 2018 and 2019. They won the Canadian title and the World Silver medal in 2015. Along with alternate Darren Oryniak, Team Neufeld also has a 17W-2L record in winning the last two Manitoba Masters championships.
The Everest Canadian National Senior Championship will be played in Moncton, NB in December, 2024.
