There were numerous qualifying events last weekend for the upcoming provincial championships in our province.
Justin Richter of Beausejour, Emerson Klimpke of Stonewall & Justin Reynolds of Winnipeg Beach qualified for the 2024 Viterra Provincial Men's Curling Championship. Richter, Klimpke & Reynolds won their spots at the East regional at the Gimli Curling Club. Winnipeg spots went to Steen Sigurdson of Deer Lodge; Darren Perche & Devon Wiebe of Charleswood; Daniel Birchard of Pembina; Thomas McGillivary of St. Vital; Greg Blanchard of Assiniboine Memorial and Hayden Forrester of Fort Rouge.
Rural teams who qualified include Cale Dunbar & Steve Irwin of Brandon, Jace Freeman of Virden, Greg Todoruk & Glenn Toews of Dauphin, Jeff Stewart of Gladstone, Dean North of Carman, Jeremy Sundell of Holland, Jesse Janz of Baldur, Mark Lowdon of La Salle and Grant Brown of Thompson. The defending champion’s entry was vacated when Matt Dunstone’s team was prequalified for the Brier. Therefore, the teams which had already qualified to compete in Stonewall before the weekend’s play began include: Reid Carruthers (CTRS), Ryan Wiebe (CTRS), Braden Calvert (MCT), Jordon McDonald (MCT), Sean Grassie (MCT), Riley Smith (MCT) and Brett Walter (Berth bonspiel winner). Four berths into the Viterra Championship remain to be filled. They will come from the Brandon (1) and Manitoba Open (3) Bonspiels.
The 2024 Viterra Championship will be played February 6th -11th at Veteran’s Memorial Sports Complex in Stonewall.
The 12-team field has also been finalized for the 2024 Provincial Scotties Tournament of Hearts next month in Morden.
Tiffany Armstrong of Dauphin and Shaela Hayward of Carman earned the two rural berths while the four Winnipeg spots went to Emily Cherwinski & Rachel Kaatz of Assiniboine Memorial and Emma Jensen & Zoey Terrick of the Heather. The first six qualified teams were CTRS berth recipients Kate Cameron, Kaitlyn Lawes, and Beth Peterson; Manitoba Curling Tour berth recipients Jolene Campbell and Lisa McLeod; and berth bonspiel winner Kristy Watling.
The 2024 Provincial Scotties will be held January 23rd-28th at the Access Event Centre in Morden. Canadian champion Kerri Einarson and Manitoba champion Jennifer Jones and their teams have pre-qualified for the national Scotties.