With Canada’s top curlers engaged in Olympic, Scottie, and Brier competition, high school curlers are hitting the ice for the start of their own trek to a gold medal.
High school curling kicked off this week in Horizon School Division with senior pre-district action on Feb. 5, junior pre-district action on Feb. 6, and senior district competition coming Feb. 9-10.
Junior
Wynyard
The junior pre-district competition in Wynyard was the most even of the competitions as seven different schools competed for spots at districts, with six of the seven schools securing one spot.
Strasbourg and Raymore earned berths in the boys competition, with Strasbourg emerging as the champions thanks to a perfect 2-0 record, with wins over Lanigan Elementary One and Raymore.
Raymore meanwhile, finished second thanks to a 2-1 record, with wins over Lanigan Elementary Two in the A-Side semi’s, and Lanigan Elementary One in the B-Side final.
The girls competition saw Lanigan Elementary claim the A-Side championship thanks to wins over Ituna Two and Ituna One.
Ituna One meanwhile, earned the second spot at districts thanks to a 2-1 record as they posted wins over Archerwill, and Ituna Two.
Lanigan High enjoyed the best competition of any of the schools as they sent one team to the pre-district championships and came away with the mixed title thanks to wins over Strasbourg, and Ituna.
Archerwill Two meanwhile, captured the B-Side title and the second of two district berths thanks to a 3-1 record as they knocked off Archerwill One in the B-Side quarters, Strasbourg in the B-Side semi’s, and Ituna in the B-Side finals.
Quill Lake
The competition is Quill Lake also saw six teams earn spots to the district championships, but from only four schools.
One of the big winners were Foam Lake who captured each of the two district berths in the boys competition.
Foam Lake One earned the A-Side title thanks to wins over Rose Valley, and Foam Lake Two, while Foam Lake Two captured the B-Side title thanks to a 2-1 record as they picked up an A-Side semifinal win over Wadena, and a B-Side title game victory over Wadena.
The hosts also captured a pair of district berths, with one coming in the girls competition, thanks to wins over Wadena Two and Wadena One, and the other coming in the mixed competition, where they knocked off Watson, and Humboldt Collegiate.
Humboldt meanwhile, earned the second mixed district berth after claiming the B-Side title thanks to a 2-1 record, posting wins over St. Dominic Two in the A-Side semi’s and Watson in the B-Side finals.
The final of the six district berths came in the girls event, where Wadena One captured the B-Side title thanks to a 2-1 record, with wins over Rose Valley, and Wadena Two.
Cudworth
The pre-district tournament in Cudworth saw the fewest number of schools earn spots at districts.
With just four spots open, due to the event not holding a girls competition, two schools each earned two berths.
Muenster and Watrous each captured two district berths, thanks to an A-Side win and a B-Side win.
Muenster captured the A-Side mixed title thanks to wins over Middle Lake Two, Imperial, and Watrous, and earned the B-Side boys title thanks to a 2-1 record as they beat Bellevue in the A-Side semi’s, lost to Watrous in the A-Side final, before beating Bellvue again for the B-Side title.
Watrous meanwhile, won the boys event with wins over Bruno and Muenster, and won the B-Side mixed event with a 2-1 record as they knocked off Middle Lake One in the A-Side semi’s and the B-Side finals.
Senior
Lanigan Pre-Districts
Foam Lake were the big winners in the pre-district tournament as they brought home three of the six district berths.
Incredibly enough, all three were pre-district titles for Foam Lake as well, as they swept the top step of the podium.
The other three district qualifiers came from three different schools as Strasbourg claimed the boys B-Side title, Muenster the girls B-Side title, and Lanigan the mixed B-Side championship.
Wadena Pre-Districts
With just four district berths up for grabs, since there was no mixed draw, Wadena came to play on their home ice earning a tournament high two district berths.
Wadena took home the top prize in the boys competition, and were forced to settle for second in the girls event.
Joining Wadena in the boys event is Humboldt One, who captured the B-Side title, while Quill Lake will join Wadena in the girls event, thanks to a A-Side championship win.
Watrous Pre-Districts
The competition in Watrous was very quiet as the tournament featured just a mixed draw.
Watrous Two captured the first of the two available district berths after capturing the A-Side title on their home ice.
Joining Watrous at the district championships will be Imperial, who knocked off Wynyard in the B-Side final.
Foam Lake Districts
The district championships in Foam Lake featured nine schools competing in three different events.
The quartet of Foam Lake, Humboldt, Wadena, and Strasbourg competed in the boys draw, with Humboldt emerging victorious.
It was not easy for Humboldt, who lost to Foam Lake in the opening draw before beating Strasbourg, Foam Lake, and Wadena twice to claim the district title.
Wadena meanwhile, finished second and earned the second of two regional berths.
Unfortunately for Strasbourg and Foam Lake it is the end of the line for each of them, as Strasbourg finished the tournament 0-2, and Foam Lake 1-2, with their loss to Humboldt costing them a regional berth.
The girls draw also featured four schools as Foam Lake, Wadena, Quill Lake, and Muenster took part.
Foam Lake followed the same path as Humboldt did in the boys event, winning the title despite losing to Wadena in their opening match.
Needing to run the table to win districts, Foam Lake did just that beating Quill Lake, Muenster, and Wadena twice.
Wadena meanwhile, finished second and earned the second of two spots after losing to Foam Lake.
Despite failing to reach the finals, Muenster will also be advancing to regionals, as three girls spots were up for grabs.
Quill Lake’s loss to Foam Lake ended their hopes of moving on to regionals as their season comes to a close.
The final bit of action came in the mixed event, where Foam Lake, Imperial, Watrous, and Lanigan all competed.
For the first and only time at districts, the team that won the A-Side captured the district title as they picked up wins over Imperial, and Lanigan twice to win the district title and claim the first of two regional berths.
With their loss to Foam Lake, Lanigan will also move on to regionals as they picked up wins over Watrous twice.
Unfortunately for Imperial and Watrous they saw their seasons come to a close, as Watrous finished with a 1-2 record, with their B-Side loss to Lanigan eliminating them, and Imperial managing a 0-2 record.
Senior teams will now turn their attention to regionals, with girls and mixed action coming from Foam Lake, and boys action from Wadena, on March 2-
