Thunder Bay’s Kurtis Byrd remains undefeated atop the standings at the Northern Ontario junior men’s provincial curling championship.
Byrd and teammates Mike Zsakai, Joshua Szajewski and Isaac Keffer swept all three of their Friday games at the Kapuskasing Curling Club, downing Zach Warkentin’s fellow Port Arthur Curling Club 7-1 in the morning draw, knocking off North Bay’s Connor Lawes 8-3 in the afternoon and wrapping up their perfect day edging Sault Ste. Marie’s Nick Dawson 5-4 in an evening match.
Byrd improved to 5-0.
That’s one better than Warkentin, who slipped to 4-1, good for second place in the eight-team event.
Warkentin followed up his morning loss with an 11-7 win over Matthew Turner’s Atikokan foursome and an 8-6 win over Wark.
Wark fell 5-2 to Dawson, but rebounded to beat Thessalon’s Cody Tretreault 12-6 in the afternoon, his only win in five matches.
In Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay’s Tirzah Keffer of the Port Arthur Curling Club tops the standings at the Northern Ontario junior women’s provincial championship.
Keffer downed Idylwylde’s Brianne Manson 9-2 in the morning draw, thumped Stratton’s Jessica Haw in the afternoon and held on to defeat Idylwylde’s Krysta Burns 7-6 in the nightcap.
Keffer is 5-0 with one day left in round-robin play, one game up on fellow PACC skip Megan St. Amand at 4-1.
The St. Amand foursome went 2-1 on the day, beating Haw 11-4, dropping a 10-6 decision to Manson and finishing off with an 8-3 win over Kapuskasing’s Sarah-Ane Guay rink.
Results weren’t as good for Thunder Bay’s Jenny Keetch, the lone team without a win through five draws. Keetch fell 9-1 to Guay, 7-3 to Burns and 9-7 to Haw on Friday.
Round robin play wraps up on Saturday morning on both fronts.
