Virden’s Jace Freeman skipped his Manitoba champion rink to a sixth-place finish at the Canadian U-18 Curling Championship.
The son of Graham and Roxanne Freeman, representing the Virden Curling Club, went 4-2 in Pool C at the prestigious event in Timmins, Ont. The Manitoba 1 rink conceded 7-6 to Saskatchewan 2 and lost 4-3 to Nova Scotia 2. It then rebounded to win four straight and post a 4-2 pool record. The rink’s pool victories came against Northern Ontario 2, 6-2; Northern Ontario 1, 3-2; Quebec 2, 7-5; and Saskatchewan 1, 8-4. In the playoffs, the Freeman rink downed Quebec 1, 8-6. A 7-3 loss to Alberta 2 sent it to the consolation round. Manitoba 1 beat Prince Edward Island, 7-1, before ending the event with a 9-5 loss at the hands of Alberta 1.
“I enjoyed the atmosphere of playing in an arena setting with tons of fans loudly cheering us on,” said Freeman, who emphasized, “The atmosphere was absolutely amazing, it made us feel like we were in the big leagues, playing in front of a huge live crowd like that.
The Alberta 2 rink, Davies, that Freeman fell to in the quarterfinals went on to claim the national championship. The other Manitoba male rink included Nick Senff, whose father Danny grew up in Virden. That rink went 5-3.
Freeman’s rink includes third Elias Huminicki of Winnipeg Beach, second Jack Steski of Winnipeg, and lead Rylan Graham of Winnipeg Beach. Graham Freeman, Jace’s father, coaches the team. Coaching for the first time at a national curling event, Graham Freeman said the rink had a great time at nationals.
“I really enjoyed every aspect of the event,” he said. “It was very well organized and the host venue in Timmins was fantastic. We played 10 different teams from all across Canada this week. It was a very cool experience. I was very proud of our team’s effort this week. The event was extremely competitive, and we enjoyed the challenge. I enjoyed watching the boys compete hard on the ice and then create some friendships off of it.”
The U18 rink will now compete at the Canada Winter Games in Prince Edward Island, Feb. 18-March 5. As well, Freeman will skip a rink at the Canadian Junior Championships March 25-April 2 in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec.
“We all learned a lot this week and the experience will no doubt help us as we look forward to competing against many of the same teams again at the Canada Winter Games in PEI in a couple weeks from now … I’m looking forward to taking what we’ve learned here and hopefully use this experience to produce an even greater result at the events we have coming up in the next few weeks,” Graham Freeman said.
