VITERRA: Stewart rink feels support in Neepawa

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This article was published 09/02/2023 (1223 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEEPAWA — While there’s no hometown team at the Yellowhead Centre for the 2023 Viterra Championship, Jeff Stewart’s rink has quickly become a crowd favourite.

In a field that features several Westman squads, Stewart and lead Geoff Trimble hail from nearby Gladstone, with Brandon’s Eric Zamrykut at third and Carberry’s Austin Mustard throwing second stones.

“The support we’ve got from everyone here has been excellent,” Zamrykut said. “This is quite an atmosphere to be a part of.”

“When you got people cheering for you when you make a nice shot, it’s a pretty good feeling,” Stewart added.

It’s been a great week thus far for Stewart, who is having his best showing to date at a Viterra Championship.

Having fallen out in the ‘B’ event quarterfinals at the last three provincial men’s playdowns, he qualified for today’s ‘B’ event semifinal with a convincing 10-2 triumph over Brandon’s Cale Dunbar on Thursday afternoon.

Stewart is taking on either Carberry’s Kelly Marnoch or JT Ryan’s quartet from the Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club in Winnipeg, who squared off in a game that was in progress at press time.

“Our main goal each season is to try and get to this event,” Stewart said.

“It’s a little bit different than what we are used to as we have to adjust to playing on arena ice in the first few ends, but we feel like we’ve been getting a little better in each game.”

The winners of this season’s Westman Super League opened up the week with a 6-4 triumph over Marnoch Wednesday afternoon.

They dropped an ‘A’ event semifinal 7-4 to Ryan Wiebe’s Fort Rouge on Thursday, but provided a tough challenge to one of the top young teams in the province after falling behind 4-0 early.

“Once we got those tough ends out of the way, I thought we played pretty well,” Zamrykut said.

“Each of our games have been pretty different along the way. If you look back at our matchup with Kelly, it really could have gone in their favour. Both teams were playing really well.”

The win over Marnoch marked the first time that Stewart had opened up the Viterra Championship with a victory.

“It’s always good when you get out of the first day with two legs left to stand on,” Stewart said with a smile.

Brandon’s Steve Irwin qualified for an ‘A’ event final with an 11-5 win over Sean Grassie on Thursday afternoon. He took on Reid Carruthers this morning.

Carberry product Braden Calvert and his Fort Rouge quartet are up against Corey Chambers in an ‘A’ event final. They advanced with a 10-3 victory over Tanner Lott.

Marnoch, Carberry native Joey Witherspoon and his team from the Assiniboine, and Jace Freeman’s Virden rink — who are without their skip as he takes part in the under-18 nationals in Timmins, Ont. — were still alive in the ‘B’ event heading into Thursday night’s draw.

Dunbar, Jay Kinnaird of Virden and Carberry’s Rob Van Kommer have been eliminated from the event.

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