Morning Star Staff
Jim Cotter’s shot at reaching at least a tiebreaker at the Tim Hortons Brier Canadian men’s curling championship in Calgary was still alive Thursday afternoon.
The Vernon skip, backed by third Ryan Kuhn, second Tyrel Griffith and lead Rick Sawatsky, scored a 7-4 win over Jeremy Mallais of New Brunswick Thursday afternoon at the Saddledome to improve to 5-5 with one round-robin game left vs Steven Laycock of Saskatchewan this morning.
Entering the final draw Thursday, Laycock was was holding onto the fourth and final playoff spot at 6-3 going into a match against Mark Kean of Ontario (3-6).
Jean-Michel Ménard of Quebec was 6-4 heading into a match Thursday night against Brad Gushue (8-2) of Newfoundland/Labrador.
Alberta’s Kevin Koe and Manitoba’s Reid Carruthers were each 4-5 with two games to play as of Thursday. Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs was in top spot at 9-1 while Team Canada, skipped by Pat Simmons, was alone in third at 7-3.
Cotter improved to 4-5 Thursday morning with a 6-2 win over Jamie Koe’s winless Northwest Territories rink.
Wednesday was not a kind day to the B.C. champs, who suffered a pair of losses.
Carruthers picked up three in the eighth, causing Cotter to shake hands, for an 8-3 decision.
In the morning draw, Team Canada, featuring Cotter’s teammate of a year ago, John Morris, scored two in the 10th for an 8-7 victory.
Through 14 draws, the Cotter rink was curling at 86 per cent, led by the front end with Griffith curling at an 85 per cent clip and Sawatsky at 84 per cent.
Cotter had an 80 per cent mark and Kuhn was trying to improve on a 77 per cent clip.
Simmons and Jacobs were leading the skips at 86 per cent apiece, while Ryan Fry of Northern Ontario and Marc Kennedy of Alberta shared top spot among thirds, at 92 per cent.
Meanwhile, two Vernon teams begin play today at the Tim Hortons B.C. Juvenile Curling Championships in Lake Cowichan.
Clare Schmidt and her rink of third Jaelyn Cotter, second Winter Harvey and lead Cassidy Schwaerzle open up the eight-team women’s event at 8:30 this morning against Emily Smith of Parksville/Nanaimo.
The draw features two four-team divisions.
The Schmidt quartet will also meet Alyssa Connell of Prince George/Quesnel Friday at 3:30 p.m. and Elizabeth Schulz of Fraser Lake Saturday at 8:30 a.m.
Thomas Love’s rink of third Erik Colwell, second Brendan Chapple and lead Johnathan Schwartz is part of the eight-team, two-division men’s draw.
Love opens today at noon against Hayato Sato of Coquitlam, and will complete the preliminary round at 7:30 p.m. against Julia Chmelyk of Fraser Lake and Brayden Carpenter of New Westminster Saturday at noon.
The finals in both events go Sunday at 11 a.m.
