First day wraps up at Under-18 championships

The inaugural Under-18 Boys and Girls Curling Championships continued in Moncton on Tuesday with lots of exciting action happening at both Curl Moncton and the Superior Propane Centre. The day saw the Northern Ontario woman get off to a quick start, downing two heavyweights from Alberta and Saskatchewan. The Northern Ontario team is skipped by Kira Brunton of the Sudbury Curling Club in Sudbury, Ont. Brunton brings an impressive resume with her to this national championship, including a 2015 Canada Winter Games gold medal for Team Ontario and an appearance for Northern Ontario at the 2016 Junior Nationals as the third stone for the team skipped by Megan Smith. Northern Ontario will look to continue their winning ways tomorrow with two games against Ontario and Manitoba. The hometown girls continued to cruise this afternoon, with New Brunswick rolling to a 2-0 start in the standings and making the local crowd happy. Skip Justine Comeau and Co. are pleased with their start. “Yeah it’s a good start,” said Comeau. “It’s exactly what we wanted to do so that’s good. We don’t play till 6 p.m. tomorrow so now we just have to get ready for that.” The Comeau rink curls out of the Capital Winter Club in Fredericton and is rounded out by third Emma LeBlanc, second (and younger sister) Brigette Comeau and lead Keira McLaughlin. On the Boys’ side, reigning Junior Canadian Champion Tyler Tardi of British Columbia continued his winning ways. “I’m here to end the season on a high note, and a fun note,” said Tardi after skipping his team to a 2-0 first day. “We are trying to have some fun, enjoy it.” “It’s really neat being here. It’s the first U18 Nationals so, that’s pretty cool to get to come here and play with two guys we don’t normally play with and have some fun,” added third Sterling Middleton. “It’s nice having the experience under our belts. We kind of know what to say. Everyone is handling it good so far.” The Northern Ontario men, skipped by Jacob Horgan, got off to a rocky start on Tuesday morning (losing 7-0 to Nova Scotia), but battled back to split the day at 1-1. “It’s a huge relief,” said Horgan after a 5-3 win over Saskatchewan. “Our first game didn’t go as planned at all, not even scoring a point, but we really came back and played probably our best game all year. It really shows how well we can play, so it’s a huge confidence boost.” Play continues tomorrow with games at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. For information on team lineups, schedules and tickets, go to the event website: www.curling.ca/2017under18/.