Thunder Men Qualify for ACAC Championships
EDMONTON, AB – JANUARY 30, 2019
The ACAC Winter Regional Curling bonspiel was hosted by the MacEwan Griffins at the Avonair Curling Club this past weekend where the Thunder men’s curling team clinched a ticket to the ACAC conference championships.
After a 4-2 performance in Red Deer, the men’s curling team that consist of Tyler Van Amsterdam, Evan Van Amsterdam, Cody Holowaychuk, Braden Pelech, and Joshua Buchholtz knew it wasn’t going to be easy to qualify for conference championships based on the calibre of competition.
On day 1, the Thunder were in tough against the undefeated Ooks who handed them a 11-2 loss to start the tournament.
Despite an opening round loss, the Thunder were able to bounce back and go a perfect 3-0 on the day defeating the RDC Kings (4-3), Lakeland Rustlers (8-1), and Olds College Broncos (9-1).
The boys were able to keep the momentum rolling on Day 3 as they managed to win out by defeating the Augustana Vikings (8-3) and host MacEwan Griffins (6-3) to clinch the second qualifying spot for ACAC Championships. The Thunder finished the regular season with an impressive 9-3 record only behind the perfect 12-0 Ooks.
Due to some injuries on the Thunder women’s team, Taylore Maschmeyer and Kennedy Turcotte were added to the roster in a last ditch effort to qualify for conference championships. Unfortunately for the ladies their season would end early as they failed to qualify for conference championships finishing the a 4-8 record on the year.
On Day 1 the ladies opened the tournament with a 6-4 loss to the host and first place Griffins.
Similar to the boys, the ladies opened up day 2 with a great start defeating the Lakeland Rustlers 7-1, however they were in tough against the RDC Queens and NAIT Ooks who handed them two losses on the day.
On the final day, the Thunder would end the tournament on an even note with a win against the Vikings (6-2) and a loss to the Broncos (11-2) to bring their record to 2-4.
The ACAC Curling Championships will take place on February 22-24, 2019 hosted by Olds College.