Meakin, Walker earn CIS Athlete of the Week awards

(Source: Canadian Interuniversity Sport) National curling champions Breanne Meakin from the University of Manitoba and Jake Walker from the University of Waterloo are the final Canadian Interuniversity Sport female and male athletes of the week for the 2012-13 season. They were honoured for the period ending March 24.

The CIS-CCA men’s champion Waterloo Warriors, from left, skip Jake Walker, third Edward Cyr, second Jordan Moreau, lead James Freeman, alternate Nathan Ransom and coach Scott Allen. The team was honoured by the CIS on Wednesday (Photo, G. Wycherley Photography)

Meakin, a sciences student from Winnipeg, skipped the Bisons to a perfect 8-0 overall record at the CIS-CCA Canadian University Curling Championships held at the Kamloops Curling Club in Kamloops, B.C., including a thrilling come-from-behind win over Alberta in Sunday’s gold-medal final. In the title match, Manitoba trailed 7-5 after eight ends but scored one in the ninth and stole a pair in the 10th to capture the first CIS banner in program history.

CIS Athletes of the Week, from left, skip Breanne Meakin, third Ashley Howard, second Selena Kaatz, lead Krysten Karwacki and coach Tom Clasper. (Photo, G. Wycherley Photography)

Meakin, the Canadian junior champion and world silver medallist in 2009, triumphed alongside third Ashley Howard, second Selena Kaatz and lead Krysten Karwacki. Walker, a fourth-year electrical engineering student from Minden, Ont., curled a remarkable 93 per cent on Sunday as Waterloo avenged a 7-1 loss at the hands of Alberta in last year’s CIS final with a 7-5 gold-medal win over the Golden Bears, skipped by 2012 world junior champion Brendan Bottcher. The Warriors’ road to their first CIS-CCA men’s title wasn’t an easy one as they went 5-2 in round-robin action before edging championship host Thompson Rivers 7-6 in the semifinals to earn a berth in the final. Walker, a former Canadian junior champion and a world junior bronze-medallist in 2010, skipped a foursome rounded out by third Edward Cyr, second Jordan Moreau, lead James Freeman and alternate Nathan Ransom. Bottcher was also nominated for CIS male athlete of the week honours.