B.C.’s Griffith 1st at junior curling nationals

CBC Sports: B.C.’s Griffith 1st at junior curling nationals

WebPosted Wed, 25 Jan 2006 23:59:28 EST
CBC Sports

The British Columbia junior men’s team, skipped by Ty Griffith of Kelowna, split its games Wednesday, but still held onto first place at the Canadian junior curling championships in Thunder Bay, Ont.

* RELATED: CBC Championship Curling (including Standings)

B.C. dumped Manitoba’s Travis Bale 9-3 in the afternoon to improve to 8-1, the lost 5-3 to Nova Scotia’s Dom Daemen in the evening. Griffith is guaranteed at least a tiebreaker position heading into the weekend playoffs.

Saskatchewan’s Mitch Heidt, Ontario’s Codey Maus, Quebec’s Martin Crete and New Brunswick’s Jeremy Mallais are all tied for second at 7-3.

In women’s play, Manitoba’s Calleen Neufeld stole four in the last end to shock B.C.’s Erin Fox by an 8-4 count in the afternoon, before upending Yellowknife’s Kate Jefferson 8-6 in the night draw.

“Yeah, I was (shaking),” said Neufeld, who leads the women’s field at 7-2. “We just hate losing. We want to win every game. It doesn’t matter how the other teams are doing. We want to do our best and perform at our highest level.

“I don’t know what the standings are right now. They can fight it out. We just have to win our games,” added the Winnipeg-based skip.

Saskatchewan’s Megan Selzer ranks second at 6-3. Four teams follow with four losses heading into Thursday’s final day of round-robin competition.

Griffith, competing in his third junior national, has a powerful cheering squad backing him: former world junior champion skip Bob Ursel is the father of lead Mitchell Ursel, while two-time world champion and hall-of-fame skip Pat Ryan is the proud papa of second Derek Ryan.

“This is kind of new for me,” said Pat Ryan, who finished fourth at December’s Canadian Olympic trials before retiring from competitive play.

“I don’t have to nail bite, not yet anyway.”

The elder Ryan and Ursel have elite company in the stands. Saskatchewan skip Heidt is cheered on by his father Brad, who lost the 1995 Brier final, while the legendary Russ Howard, second/skip of Brad Gushue’s Olympic-bound team, is waving the New Brunswick flag for his daughter Ashley.

CBC will have live coverage of the women’s final Saturday at 12 p.m. ET, while the men’s final begins Sunday at 12:30 pm.

with files from The Curling News and Canadian Press