Three Canadian curling championships get underway Friday in Fredericton
The U SPORTS-Curling Canada University Championships (March 15-19), Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA)-Curling Canada Championships (March 15-19) and Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship (March 19-24) will be hosted on the two ice surfaces at Willie O’Ree Place in Fredericton, NB.
This will be the second time the CCAA Championships will be staged with the support of Curling Canada. Last year the Douglas Royals and Fanshawe Falcons won the men’s and women’s gold medals, respectively.
On the women’s side, defending champion Kaitlyn Poirier returns to the Fanshawe Falcons lineup as skip and is on the hunt for back-to-back championships. Also in the running is 2019 New Holland Canadian Juniors silver-medallists Kayla MacMillan and Sarah Loken, who played third and lead for British Columbia, respectively. MacMillan skips the Douglas College team and Loken plays second.
On the men’s side, five-time Canadian juniors participant Trygg Jensen leads the NAIT Ooks. Jensen, who played for Yukon at the national juniors, has a strong support system in place. Recent Curling Canada Hall of Fame inductee Jules Owchar coaches the team. Owchar has guided school teams to 35 conference championships and two more at the national level.
Since 2012, Fanshawe College has won a leading four women’s and two men’s titles.
Both the U SPORTS-CC and CCAA Championships feature eight men’s and eight women’s teams in a round robin leading to the playoffs.
The 2019 Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship begins on Tuesday after the completion of the university and college events. While it’s the first time the national championship has been held in Fredericton, Willie O’ Ree Place hosted the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in 2013.
CBC will livestream various games from all championships during the preliminary rounds as well as several finals. You can watch at cbcsports.ca or via the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android.
