Oliver Junior Bonspiel – February 1, 2020
On Saturday at 8:30 in the morning, 47 junior curlers descended on the Eastlink Curling Centre and were greeted by the smiling faces of Delfina Antunes and Barb Shanks at the registration table.
The competitive division had 4 teams lead by Tyler Antunes of Oliver, Elijah Wielgosz of Kelowna, Erin Manning of Kelowna and Brandon Paetkau of Oliver. The novice division was composed of 8 teams put together with the more capable junior curlers acting as skips and players filling in around them from Oliver, Penticton, Summerland and Kelowna.
There were 12 junior curlers from the Oliver Curling Club in the bonspiel. In addition to Tyler and Brandon, Oliver was represented by: Brodie Bracken, Cienna Fosset, Davin Graham, Kaysen Graham, Kayla Koteles, Ethan Koteles, Maddie Miller, Kaitlyn Rouw, Josh Simon-Allen, and Harmony Swan-Hall.
The competitive teams played 8-end games, and the novice teams were on the ice for 1 hour for each game.Each junior curler had 4 hours of curling by the end of the bonspiel.A wonderful lunch of chili, macaroni and cheese, chicken soup, hot dogs, garlic toast and ice cream was devoured by the curlers, volunteers and parents.The lunch was prepared by Tony Murray and Sylvia Lowe.
At 3:30 pm the Awards Ceremony kicked off with a big thank you to all who attended and to all the volunteers and organizers. Another huge thank you went to the Kiwanis Club of Oliver and Fiona Wood who presented their generous $1000 donation for the Oliver Curling Club’s Junior Program and Bonspiel. The cheque was gratefully accepted by junior curler Brandon Paetkau on behalf of all the junior curlers and the Oliver Curling Club.
Competitive division results:
1st prize: Team Antunes of Oliver: Tyler Antunes (skip), Zack Kuechles, Jacob Martin, Eric Waller
2nd prize: Team Wielgosz of Kelowna: Elijah Wielgosz (skip), Connor Applegate, Zach Wielgosz, Desmond Johns
3rd prize: Team Paetkau of Oliver: Brandon Paetkau (skip), Rhett St. John, Hillary Robertson, Kaitlyn Rouw
4th prize: Team Manning of Penticton: Erin Manning (skip), Rachel Lane, Miranda Allen, Audrey Gosse
On the novice side, skip Owen Jaeger of Kelowna and his team took first place. Second place was a tie between teams skipped by Dawson and Alexanda, both from Penticton.
