Cloverdale and Langley’s own Team Drexel and Team Tardi have won the inaugural B.C. U18 Curling Championships.
The provincial U18 event, which took place at Nanaimo Curling Centre from March 16 to 19, was a first for B.C. Before this year, the championships were called the Juvenile Curling Championships and were for those 16 and under.
In April, Team Drexel and Team Tardi will travel to Moncton, New Brunswick, to represent B.C. at the first-ever Canadian U18 Curling Championships.
Just last week, coach Ken Britz told The Reporter he expected he’d have to buy a ticket to New Brunswick for when his team won the provincial championships.
He was right.
After taking first at the 2015 BC Juvenile Curling Championships and the 2016 BC Winter Games, Team Drexel struck gold for the third year in a row.
The team features skip Heather Drexel, second Bailey Burke, third Everly Royea and lead Madeline Britz.
Representing Coquitlam, Cloverdale and Chilliwack, Team Drexel was unbeaten in their pool. They defeated Vancouver Island’s home favourite Team Douglas in the semi-finals 5–4, before taking Team Connor of Prince George in a 5–2 game for the gold.
Langley Curling Club’s Tyler Tardi and Sterling Middleton, who recently represented Canada at the 2017 World Junior Curling Championships, joined forces with Victoria duo Derek Chandler and Scott Gray to take first place in the boys competition.
Team Sato, which represents the Royal City, Coquitlam and Cloverdale Curling Clubs and features Hayato Sato, Dawson Ballard, Troy Chong and Joshua Miki, took bronze in a decision game against Vernon Curling Club’s Team Love.
For end by end scores and player rosters, visit: playdowns.curlbc.ca.
