(HALIFAX, NS) – The defending AUS champion Dalhousie men’s and women’s curling teams opened Day 1 of the 2020 Subway AUS Curling Championships Presented by Keep It Social with decisive wins in the only draw of the day.
The AUS curling championships are being hosted by the Saint Mary’s Huskies at the CFB Halifax Curling Club. Six women’s teams and five men’s teams are participating in this year’s event.
The Tigers won both the men’s and women’s AUS titles last year in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Day 1 took place Thursday afternoon with one draw and five matches.
On the women’s side, new skip Kristin Clarke’s Dalhousie rink defeated the host Huskies and Taylour Stevens’ rink 11-0 in five ends while UNB’s skip Justine Comeau beat skip Samantha Cook’s Mount Allison rink by a score of 9-4 in eight ends.
UNB doubled up the Mounties 2-1 in stolen ends and stole five points compared to Mount Allison’s two.
Mackenzie Mitchell and her Memorial rink stole five points in six ends and defeated StFX 10-4 to sit in a three-way tie at 1-0 after the opening draw.
Skip Matt Manuel of Dalhousie beat skip Kyle Walker’s StFX rink 12-2 in six ends, stealing eight points while X stole one.
Memorial, skipped by Greg Blyde, stole a third of their points against skip Jack Smeltzer’s UNB rink and eventually won a back-and-forth battle by a score of 9-6 in eight ends.
The top four teams following round robin play advance to Saturday’s semifinals with the winners advancing to the AUS finals Sunday morning. All four finalists will earn berths into the U SPORTS national championship March 11-15 in Portage la Prairie, Man.
Day 2 of the championships are Friday with three draws (9:30am, 2 pm, 7 pm Atlantic Times).
Live scoring and results can be found here: https://www.curling.ca/scoreboard/#!/competitions/6294
TEAM STANDINGS:
Men
Dalhousie Tigers (1-0)
Memorial Sea-Hawks (1-0)
UNB Reds (0-1)
StFX X-Men (0-1)
Saint Mary’s Huskies (0-0)
Women
Dalhousie Tigers (1-0)
Memorial Sea-Hawks (1-0)
UNB Reds (1-0)
SMU Huskies (0-1)
Mount Allison Mounties (0-1)
StFX W-Women (0-1)
Story by Dominic Nolasco, Saint Mary’s Sports Information
Photos by Nick Pearce