Marnoch will throw fourth stones at provincials

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This article was published 07/02/2017 (3370 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two years ago when the then-named Safeway Championship was held at Westman Place, Kelly Marnoch made it to the final playoff round.

Now in its second year as the Viterra Championship, the Carberry skip is hungry to make a return to the final eight of the men’s provincial curling championship, which begins Wednesday and runs until Sunday at Stride Place in Portage la Prairie.

“We’re always hungry to get back there,” he said. “It’s just a matter of showing up, playing consistently when we get there and getting off to a good start.”

Marnoch, third Joey Witherspoon, second Branden Jorgensen and lead Chris Cameron earned a third consecutive trip to provincials with a pair of 8-7 wins over Brandonite Shawn Taylor and Neepawa’s Jerry Chudley at last month’s Westman regional playdowns in Souris.

Steve Irwin of Brandon and Virden’s Graham Freeman, who lost 7-2 to Irwin in the other A-side qualifier, earned the other two Westman berths. Freeman beat Tyler Waterhouse of Carberry 7-5 in the B-side qualifier.

But the makeup of Marnoch’s team will be slightly different than the one that posted a 2-2 record last year in Selkirk and was eliminated following a 7-1 loss to Winnipeg’s Taylor McIntyre in a B-side semifinal.

Marnoch, who skips but generally throws third stones, will be delivering fourth stones for his team with a bum shoulder forcing usual fourth-stone thrower Bart Witherspoon to miss this week’s event.

It will be the first time since 2013 Marnoch will throw final stones against this level of competition.

“All year it’s kind of been a weird year,” Marnoch said. “With people away for work and people being injured, nobody has really played the same position for very long. I guess we are kind of used to the inconsistency of it all.”

But he doesn’t expect the infusion of a different Witherspoon will be too much for his squad to overcome.

“We’ve all curled together enough that that doesn’t affect us too much,” Marnoch said. “It’s more just getting comfortable in a role and sticking to it. That hasn’t happened, but I’d say that’s the main challenge.”

Having familiarity with Jorgensen and Cameron on the front end should also help the Carberry foursome.

Call it a calming influence on the skip.

“Our team usually goes by how our lead plays and when he’s playing good it makes it easier on everyone and it makes us hard to beat,” Marnoch added.

And despite the inconsistent lineup he’s employed, the 18th-seeded Marnoch remains firm about his team’s expectations when they open the 32-team, modified double-knockout tournament against No. 15 Irwin on Wednesday morning.

“Obviously we are going to go in expecting to win and hoping to qualify (for the playoffs),” Marnoch said.

In addition to the Westman regional qualifiers, several other skips with Westman ties will be in Portage.

Dauphin’s Ray Baker is back for a second straight year and he is joined out of the Parkland region by clubmate Rob Fisher.

Steve Pauls, third Clarence Reimer, second Kevin Friesen and lead Dylan Reimer of the Clearwater Curling Club earned one of the two spots out of the Central region.

Former Brandonite William Lyburn, who now calls Winnipeg home, Carberry’s Braden Calvert and his Winnipeg-based squad, defending champion and Brandon product Mike McEwen, and Brandonite Jim Renwick, who gained an invite via the Brandon Men’s Bonspiel, will all take a run at the title.

McEwen ended years of heartache by scoring two in the 10th end of last year’s final to defeat Matt Dunstone 4-2 for a trip to the Tim Horton’s Brier.

Rob Fowler’s Brandon club team is the last from Westman to make it to nationals when he beat McEwen 10-6 in the 2012 provincial final in Dauphin.

McEwen is the second seed, behind Reid Carruthers, who claimed the 2015 provincial title and 2016 Home Hardware Canada Cup of Curling — both at Westman Place.

Dunstone is seeded third, Lyburn fourth and Jason Gunnlaugson is the No. 5 seed.

Pauls, the 26th seed, will face No. 7 Daley Peters in his first game for the third straight year. Pauls fell 10-6 in 2015 and 6-4 in 2016.

“We’d love to make some noise, especially when we get to play the same team the third time,” Pauls said. “The last three times we’ve been there (including this year) we’ve played the same team, so I’m not quite sure how that shakes out but because of the way the seeds go that’s what we are doing.”

Important for the 50-year-old Pilot Mound resident, who will be making his 10th appearance at provincials, and his team will be adjusting to the amount of swing in the ice.

“The key for us will be just to get on to the big curl and just making sure that we throw the rock just a little bit different than we do on the ice that we normally play on,” Pauls said. “We watch some of the curling on arena ice and we see how much it’s curling and how players have to throw the rocks a little inside out. We’re not used to that type of a release so it just takes a little bit for us to get on to that. Once we are there we can hopefully compete.”

And even if it’s a third straight first-day elimination, getting to the Viterra alone means something to Pauls. But that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be in favour of shocking the curling world.

“For us, we know that we don’t play at a level that would probably take us to the top of the field there but it just means that we are still at the top of our peers where we play in our region,” he said. “We go there hoping to do a little better than the last few times we’ve been there, but we are not unrealistic as far as we are going to go there and win it.

“Things would have to be extremely well for that and when you play against teams that are playing 50, 60, 70, 100 games a year.”

» nliewicki@brandonsun.com

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TEAM ROSTERS

QUALIFIERS:

Norman — Shaun Parsons, Burntwood

Third: Kevin Parsons, Second: Bronston Jonasson, Lead: Jim Davidson.

Norman — Travis Graham, Burntwood

Third: Grant Brown, Second: Shaun Kennedy, Lead: Jeff Ziemanski.

Parkland — Ray Baker, Dauphin

Third: Rae Kujanpaa, Second: Wes Jonasson, Lead: Sheldon Oshanyk, Fifth: Terron Stykalo, Coach: Lisa Menard.

Parkland — Rob Fisher, Dauphin

Third: Jason Yates, Second: Mike Csversko, Lead: Lawson Yates, Fifth: Roger Parker.

Westman — Steve Irwin, Brandon

Third: Travis Taylor, Second: Travis Brooks, Lead: Travis Saban, Fifth: Tyler Waterhouse, Coach: Shawn Taylor.

Westman — Kelly Marnoch, Carberry

Third: Joey Witherspoon, Second: Branden Jorgensen, Lead: Chris Cameron, Fifth: Rob Van Kommer, Coach: Murray Jorgensen.

Westman — Graham Freeman, Virden

Third: Kevin Barkley, Second: Cory Barkley, Lead: Dwayne Barkley, Fifth: Brooks Freeman.

Central — Steve Pauls, Clearwater

Third: Clarence Reimer, Second: Kevin Friesen, Lead: Dylan Reimer, Fifth: Russell Pauls.

Central — Randy Neufeld, Portage

Third: Dean Moxham, Second: Peter Nicholls, Lead: Dale Michie, Fifth: Brett Moxham.

Eastman — Wayne Ewasko, Lorette

Third: Randal Thomas, Second: Dave Beaudoin, Lead: Gord Stelmack.

Interlake — Travis Bale, East St. Paul

Third: Kelly Fordyce, Second: Ian Fordyce, Lead: Nigel Milnes, Fifth: Evan Martin.

Interlake — Kyle Foster, Arborg

Third: Shawn Magnusson, Second: Bryan Galbraith, Lead: Justin Reischek, Fifth: Kyle Einarson.

Winnipeg — Hayden Forrester, Fort Rouge

Third: Brennan Sampson, Second: Brett MacDonald, Lead: Cole Chandler, Fifth: Andrew Clapham.

Winnipeg — Derek Oryniak, Granite

Third: Darren Oryniak, Second: Al Purdy, Lead: A.J. Girardin, Fifth: Weston Oryniak.

Winnipeg — Sean Grassie, Fort Rouge

Third: Andrew Irving, Second: Geoff Lang, Lead: Ryan Hlatkey, Coach: Jack Grassie.

Winnipeg — Rob Atkins, Granite

Third: Curtis Atkins, Second: Nick Curtis, Lead: Trevor Grenkow, Fifth: Justin Twiss.

Winnipeg — JT Ryan, Assiniboine Memorial

Third: Jacques Gauthier, Second: Graham McFarlane, Lead: Brendan Bilawka, Fifth: Kyle Allenby, Coach: John Lund.

Winnipeg — Taylor McIntyre, Pembina

Third: Connor McIntyre, Second: Riley Smith, Lead: Jared Hancox.

Spring Berth — William Lyburn, Granite

Third: Richard Daneault, Second: Jared Kolomaya, Lead: Braden Zawada, Fifth: Jim Coleman.

Fall Berth — Braden Calvert, Deer Lodge

Third: Kyle Kurz, Second: Lucas Van Den Bosch, Lead: Brendan Wilson, Coach: Tom Clasper.

Fall Berth — Matt Dunstone, Deer Lodge

Third: Alex Forrest, Second: Ian McMillan, Lead: Connor Njegovan.

MCT Champion — David Bohn, Assiniboine Memorial

Third: Justin Richter, Second: Tyler Forrest, Lead: Bryce McEwen.

MCT Rankings — Trevor Loreth, Granite

Third: Brad Haight, Second: Ryan Lowdon, Lead: Brett Cawson, Fifth: Stu Gresham.

MCT Rankings — Daley Peters, East St. Paul

Third: Corey Chambers, Second: Kody Janzen, Lead: Stu Shiells, Fifth: Julien Leduc.

CTRS Berth — Reid Carruthers, West St. Paul

Third: Braeden Moskowy, Second: Derek Samagalski, Lead: Colin Hodgson, Coach: Dan Carey.

CTRS Berth — Jason Gunnlaugson, Granite

Third: Colton Lott, Second: Kyle Doering, Lead: Rob Gordon, Coach: Gerald Sande.

CTRS Berth — Dennis Bohn, Assiniboine Memorial

Third: Neil Kitching, Second: Kennedy Bird, Lead: Daniel Hunt.

Defending Champion — Mike McEwen, Fort Rouge

Third: B.J. Neufeld, Second: Matt Wozniak, Lead: Denni Neufeld, Fifth: Jon Mead.

Brandon Berth Bonspiel — Jim Renwick, Brandon

Third: Ray McPhail, Second: Greg Rabe, Lead: Harvey Heise, Fifth: Bill Sutherland.

Manitoba Open — Greg Mikolajek, Fort Rouge

Third: Ian Harkness, Second: Brent Harder, Lead: Dean Nero, Fifth: Pat Carson.

Manitoba Open — Richard Muntain, Pinawa

Third: Nathan Asham, Second: Brad Van Walleghem, Lead: Rodney Legault, Fifth: Mike McCaughan, Coach: Guy Mao.

Manitoba Open — Howard Restall, Fort Rouge

Third: Dave Hardy, Second: Bob Boughey, Lead: Doug Holmes.