Carman’s Shaela Hayward and her team of Keira Krahn, India Young and Rylie Cox captured the U18 Canadian National Curling Championship in Ottawa as their Team Manitoba squad defeated Quebec’s Jolianne Fortin by an 8-5 score in Saturday’s gold medal game.
“I don’t think we expected this,” said Shaela Hayward. “I knew we could do well and represent our province. Our goal was to make playoffs and go from there. But I don’t think any of us really thought that we could do it, but here we are, and we are super proud of what we accomplished.”
Team Hayward, who are all Grade 12 students at Carman Collegiate, went 4-2 in the round robin before rattling off four straight wins in the playoffs to win the National Championship.
Hayward defeated Sarah Bergeron of Quebec 8-1 in the round-of-12 and then beat Emma DeSchiffart of Alberta 6-5 in the quarterfinals and downed Rebecca Regan of Nova Scotia 4-2 in the semifinals. In both the quarterfinal and semifinal games, Hayward was forced to steal the final end to win.
“The quarterfinal was really intense,” said India Young. “It wasn’t our best, but we played better in the back half of the game. The semifinal was even more intense as it was really loud on the ice with the crowd, and there was a huge atmosphere around us. We just hung in there in the semifinal and managed to steal the last few ends.”
In the championship final against Quebec, Hayward scored three in the first end and four more in the third to take a commanding 7-2 lead. Quebec had a chance for a big end in the fourth end, but squandered it. From there, Team Manitoba rode the wave and coasted to an 8-5 victory.
Standard Photos by Jack Gustafson/Curling Canada
“We got that early lead, which was great, and we knew we just had to work hard to keep it,” said Young. “We almost got in trouble there in the fourth end as Quebec was putting pressure on us, and we know they were a great team that could fight back. They almost did, but we got a lucky break and built off of that to stay strong the rest of the way.”
With the win, Hayward became the first Team Manitoba champions to win a Canadian national curling championship since 2020 when Altona’s Mackenzie Zacharias won the National Junior title and Gimli’s Kerri Einarson captured the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
“We won, and then it was just a whirlwind,” said Hayward. “We didn’t know what was happening, and it still doesn’t feel real. I’m sure it will sink in soon, but we’re just in disbelief and can’t believe that we pulled it off.”
Team Hayward will next be competing at the 2024 Provincial Junior Championships from Feb. 21-25 at their home club in Carman.
“We’re super excited to play in our home rink with our home crowd,” said Hayward. “We think that a lot of people in town are going to come out for that. And we have so much confidence in ourselves right now. We’re ready to fight for a spot at the U21 Nationals. That’s our goal, and we’ll be working hard to make that happen.”
Manitoba was represented on the boys side by two teams in Altona’s Rylan Campbell (Logan Zacharias, Nick Sneff, Rylan Graham) and Morden’s Nash Sugden (Tyler Fehr, Tanner Treichel, Ryan Thiessen). Campbell went 4-2 in the round robin, before losing out to Ontario in the round-of-12, while Sugden missed the playoffs with a 2-4 record.
