LAC LA BICHE - Curler Barry Chwedoruk and a Lac La Biche Curling Club rink are once again Canadian champions.
The team, skipped by St. Albert's Wade White swept the competition at the 2021 Everest Seniors Championships in Sault Ste. Marie over the weekend, winning all 12 games, including Sunday afternoon's gold medal match with the Ontario team skipped by Bryan Cochrane.
Chwedoruk played third on the Team Alberta rink skipped by White, with Dan Holowaychuk shooting second and George White as lead. The team's entrance at the nationals was their fifth-straight trip to the championships, winning the event in 2017 and going on to win at the World Senior Championships in 2018. In 2019, the rink earned a bronze medal at the national event.
The Team Alberta crew was hot out of the hack, beating teams from Yukon, Nunavut, British Columbia, Northern Ontario and Quebec in the round-robin matches that began on December 6. They took a perfect 8-0 record — including a 10-3, sixth-end submission win over the Ontario team they would eventually see in the finals — to the weekend championship rounds.
Curling action from the week on a dedicated Youtube channel and a schedule of games can still be found on the Curling Canada Youtube channel. More details about the national event can can also be found at www.curling.ca
In the quarterfinals, the Alberta squad beat Newfoundland and Labrador 11-1, followed by an equally lob-sided blowout over Team Saskatchewan 11-2 in the semifinals. Despite the first go-round win over Ontario, the gold medal match was a more even tilt, with both teams tied at three going into the final end. Team Alberta had the final rock of the end, and it was needed as White had to make a draw to the button to score the winning point.
Message of congratulations have flooded into the social media pages of the Lac La Biche POST's initial story on the team, and more followup details from the senior mens team are expected in the coming days.
The Team Alberta women's team skipped by Cheryl Bernard of Calgary's Glencoe Curling Club was knocked out of the bronze medal match by the Nova Scotia rink. The Saskatchewan rink skipped by veteran curler Sherry Anderson is the national senior women's champion, easily beating Team BC 10-2 in the gold medal match.
The winning teams in both men's and women's events will go on to represent Canada at the World Senior Curling Championships. A date and location for the Worlds was not known by the first edition of this article. Last year's world event was scheduled to take place in Kelowna, but was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Chwedoruk and Team Alberta previous wins
https://www.stalberttoday.ca/local-sports/four-peat-for-holowaychuk-2108912