Thunder Bay rinks reach junior curling finals

It’s an all-Thunder Bay matchup in the Northern Ontario junior men’s curling final.

Port Arthur Curling Club rival skips Kurtis Byrd and Zach Warkentin will square off Sunday for the right to represent the region at nationals.

Warkentin, lead Will Perozak, second Mackenzie Joblin and third Matt Roberts edged Sault Ste. Marie’s Nick Dawson foursome 8-7 in Saturday’s semifinal, advancing to the championship game.

All three rinks finished round-robin play at 5-2.

Byrd lost his final two round robin games on Saturday, falling 6-2 to Atikokan’s Matthew Turner rink and 11-7 to Thessalon’s Cody Tetreault in the finale. Warkentin split his final two games, falling 9-5 to North Bay’s Connor Lawes before rebounding with a 6-5 win over Sudbury’s Tanner Horgan.

Thunder Bay’s Brennan Wark doubled Horgan 8-4 and lost 11-7 to Lawes, winding up last at 2-5 at the Kapuskasing event.

In Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay’s Tirzah Keffer will take on Sudbury’s Krysta Burns in Sunday’s final. Keffer swept both her round robin games on Saturday to finish a perfect 7-0 and earn an automatic berth in the championship.

The men’s and women’s winners will advance to nationals, which begin Jan. 31 in Fort MacMurray, Alta.