Salmon Arm’s Team Belway made a seventh place finish in the B.C. U18 Curling Championships, falling short of qualifying for the national championships.
The best young curlers from around the province descended on the Juan de Fuca Curling Centre in Victoria for the championships, which ran March 12 to 17.
In 2018, the Salmon Arm Curling Centre hosted the U18 event, with Salmon Arm-Vernon hybrid Team Colwell coming just shy of qualifying for finals after a late-end upset.
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The team from Salmon Arm competing in the girls’ event at the 2019 championships was made up of skip Maya Belway, lead Abbigail Paetsch, second Madison Pentilla and third Danielle Paetsch.
They qualified to compete in the B.C. Championships during playdowns hosted in Ashcroft in February, defeating Team Brissette to claim one of the final berths to the provincial event.
In their first draw on Tuesday, Team Belway faced Team McCrady, a mixed team of members from Langley and Chilliwack.
Team Belway was up by three points with a 3-0 lead right from the start, adding to that lead consistently and finishing with a 10-0 victory.
Their second game was against Team Hafeli, from Kamloops. The Salmon Arm rink took an early lead in the first two ends, but a draw in the third signalled a turning point and Team Hafeli managed to finishwith a 5-4 victory in the eighth end.
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Against Team Bowles, from the host Juean de Fuca club, the Salmon Arm team kept a 5-4 lead until the final end, where Bowles scored three and took a 7-5 victory.
Against Team Richards from the Comox Valley club, Team Belway took an early lead in the first end but steadily lost ground, finishing the game 8-4 in favour of Team Richards.
Team Taylor from Royal City came out on top against the Salmon Arm rink in a surprise upset during the final end, turning a 7-6 deficit into an 8-7 victory over Team Belway.
In their second to last game, against Team Buchy from Kimberley who would eventually go on to win the finals and claim gold, Belway lost 8-2 after falling behind early in the game.
Their final game of the U18 Championships was against Team Douglas, the Port Alberni rink that would come out second overall. A series of two-point ends late in the match would put Belway up to an 8-2 lead, giving them the win in their final game and finishing in the seventh place spot overall.
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