Team Derksen from the Martensville Curling Club demonstrated they are among the best young curling teams in Canada after a couple of strong showings at major events.
They came away with a silver medal at the 2024 Canadian Under 18 Boys and Girls Championship on February 4-10 at the RA Centre & Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club in Ontario.
Team Derksen, with lead Gavin Martens, second Tyler Derksen, third Logan Sawicki, skip Dylan Derksen and coach Brad Kennedy were among the class of the field.
After an opening round loss to Quebec, the Saskatchewan squad rattled off seven wins in a row to earn a berth in the championship game. They battled hard in a 4-5 loss to Newfoundland & Labrador.
They continued their strong play in the U20 Provincial championships in North Battleford February 22-25. They had wins over Team Zuravoff, Team Jones, Team Heister and Team Snow. Their only loss (5-8) in round robin play was to Team Drewitz.
Those two teams met in the 1-2 page playoff game, with Team Drewitz coming away with an 8-5 win.
Team Derksen then advanced to the finals with a 7-3 win over Team Zuravloff in the semi-final game.
Team Drewitz, made up of skip Matthew Drewitz (Saskatoon), Michael Hom (Regina) Brayden Heistad (Regina) and Jared Tessier (Bellevue) used a series of steals in the second half of the game to come away with the 8-2 win.
Due to SK’s performance at the last few U20 National Championships, Saskatchewan has been given another berth in the men’s division to represent Team Saskatchewan #2 at the National Championship. Team Derksen making the final means they will be Team SK2 at the 2024 New Holland U20 Championships in Fort McMurray, AB on March 24-31.
(not in order) Skip: Jenna Pomedli Third: Melissa Remeshylo Second: Kelsey Noyes Lead: Kylie Willms
(not shown)Coach: Verne Anderson (SASKCURL PHOTO)
In the Women’s U20 Championship game, Team Pomedli came away with a 7-4 win over Team Beausoleil.
Melissa Remeshylo (Warman) from the Martensville Curling Club throws third rocks for the champions. Kylie Willms (Dundurn) plays lead while Kelsey Noyes (Lumsden) is the team’s second.
Other area players who competed in the U20 championship are: Cara Kesserling (Gruenthal) second on Team Johnson, Lydia Zukewich (Martensville) lead for Team Kessel, lead Lindsey Miller (Martensville) and second Jenna Wiebe (Langham) on Team Semeniuk.