Five times a bridesmaid, never a bride.
Until Sunday.
Donna Mychaluk – five times a B.C. Senior Women’s Curling silver medalist – finally added gold to her collection Sunday at the Vernon Curling Club.
Mychaluk, backed by third Victoria Murphy, second Shirley Wong and lead Janet Suter, calmly drew to the top of the 12-foot with her final stone in an extra end to knock out the shot stone of Penny Shantz and score a 6-5 victory.
The Royal City (New Westminster)/Parksville quartet tried to win the elusive provincial title in the final end but Mychaluk’s attempted draw to the button came up a few inches short.
Mychaluk and Murphy curled last year with Sheila Cowan, losing the provincial final in Trail to Penticton’s Marilou Richter, who was third in Vernon.
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Shantz, a four-time champion, and her Parksville/Nanaimo/Comox Valley/Vernon rink of third Colleen Robson, second Debbie Erdos, lead Teri Palynchuk and fifth player Susan Hamilton of Vernon, forced the extra end with one in the seventh end and the steal of one in eight.
The men’s final was anticlimactic as defending champ Wes Craig and his Duncan/Nanaimo rink of third Steve Waatainen, second Keith Clarke and lead Craig Burton scored four in the second end, then added steals of one point in the next three ends for a 7-1, six-end victory over the Kelowna/Comox Valley quartet of skip Steve Wright, third Ron Schmidt, second Normand Cote and lead Shaun Everest.
It’s the fifth provincial senior crown for Craig who, along with Mychaluk, will represent B.C. at the Canadian championships next month in Portage la Prairie, Man.
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