A pair of Okotoks curlers found their first crack at the Alberta Junior Curling Championships to be tough sledding.
Taylor Ardiel, an Okotoks native and second for the Scott Smith rink, finished with a 4-3 record and just missed out on a semifinal berth, while the Okotoks Curling Club team led by skip Kyler Kleibrink finished 1-6 in its first appearance at the junior championships, Jan. 10-15 at the Medicine Hat Curling Club.
Ardiel, the head instructor at the Okotoks Curling Academy, said he garnered some meaningful lessons from his debut at the junior provincials.
“It was good experience because it was nice to be there for a first time… when you go (to provincials) it’s just whoever figures out the ice first is going to be the team who goes to nationals,” he said. “There were a few games where we didn’t figure it out and there’s a few games where we figured it out really quick, from that we learned each game is going to be different and that any team can be beat.”
Team Smith struggled out of the gate with losses to the Josh Webster and Brendan Bottcher rinks on the first day of action. They recovered nicely with wins in four of their next five draws, including victories over the Jordan Steinke rink out of Dawson Creek, B.C., the Sexsmith-based Team Vavrek followed by a faceoff with the Okotoks Curling Club’s Kyler Kleibrink rink in which Ardiel got the better of the fellow Okotokians via a 7-4 result.
Ardiel said it was enjoyable to go up against a former neighbour in Kleibrink in the sixth draw in which the elder Okotokian came out on top.
“It was the last game of the day and we had another game in the morning so we knew we had to win against Kyler,” said Ardiel. “We’ve played them a few times in the year so we knew that if we played the same game against them we’ll probably win again.”
Team Smith then edged Edmonton’s Shane Parcels rink 6-5 in the last draw of the championships to qualify for the tiebreaker, a rematch with Team Steinke with a spot in the semifinal on the line. Out of necessity, the Smith rink altered its strategy in its second draw with Steinke, said Ardiel
“In the tiebreaker we went in with a different game plan because the first time we played it really clean and they knew that we weren’t going to be able to do that again against them,” said Ardiel of Team Steinke.
“They tried junking in the first few ends and it turned out all right and then we had a missed opportunity for two and it turned out that we needed to come through on the last shot and it was just a foot or two deep.”
“That’s the way curling goes, it’s a game of inches.”
Meanwhile, the Okotoks Curling Club rink led by Kleibrink, alongside third Geoff Nicholson, second Colin Peterson and lead Chris Sprinkhuysen, took seventh place with a record of 1-6.
“We didn’t play too badly and our record definitely didn’t reflect how we played,” Kleibrink said. “But, we just didn’t capitalize on key moments when we could have got a lot of points.”
Kleibrink, whose team’s youth is showcased by its participation in the juvenile curling circuit for those under the age of 17, was by far the youngest team at the junior provincials.
He said his first taste of the championships gave his team confidence going forward, walking away with the knowledge they can beat any team at the competition.
See Curlers on page 17
The Okotoks team reflected the sentiment in its second game at the championships by defeating the Sundre-based Dylan Webster rink, the top-ranked team in the province, by a 7-3 margin.
“We made every shot precisely,” said Kleibrink of his team’s first ever win over Webster. “And that’s exactly how I wish we always were.”
The Okotoks-based team was unable to sustain its winning ways, dropping a pair of draws to Edmonton teams, 8-1 to the Bottcher rink and 9-6 to the Parcels team. On Jan. 13, Kleibrink was taken out by the lone B.C. team at the competition, the Jordan Steinke rink out of Dawson Creek 9-2 and ended its tournament with losses to Team Smith and the Dylan Gousseau rink.
The Kleibrink rink and Team Smith will now be preparing for the Alberta Junior Curling Tour championships, March 9-11 at the Okotoks Curling Club.
