Thunder Curling Conclude Season at the Winter Regional
Posted on: Feb 3, 2014
The Concordia Thunder Curling teams hit the ice for the 2nd regional play down this weekend at the Avonair Curling Club, hosted by NAIT. Both teams were in tough to qualify for provincial competition, having started slowly during the fall regional in November.
The ladies were 1st out of the blocks, taking on Augustana. Led by a strong game from Skip Willow Frissell, the team jumped out to a 6-0 early lead and held on to finish off with a 6-1 win. Next up for the ladies came Red Deer College and once again the Thunder had strong games from everyone but were unable to amount much offense, losing 4-1. Next up was perennial medalist NAIT and the ladies team met this challenge head on, taking an early lead and increasing it throughout the game for a convincing win. Unfortunately, that would be the final win of the weekend, even though the team played strong games against both Grande Prairie and MacEwan. The final game of the weekend was extremely exciting, with strong performances by the entire team of Lead Jennifer Martinoski, 2nd Bailey Gardecki, Vice-skip Brooke Gelasco and Skip Willow Frissell. While MacEwan had handily won their 1st four games of the weekend, the ladies from Concordia fought hard right to the end, losing only when Frissell's last rock double attempt rolled just a smidge too far, giving MacEwan a 5-3 win.
Unfortunately, the Concordia Men's team did not fare as well, going 1 – 4 for the weekend. Led by Skip Jason Ferster, the Thunder started out strong against Red Deer, taking a large early lead and holding on for an 8 – 5 win. However, that was all the glory there was to be for the men’s team. With newcomers to the game Andrew Koning and Tyler Ludwig, as well as 2nd year curler Konnor Wood, Skip Jason Ferster had his hands full with the very competitive men's division. "The ACAC men’s division was once again very strong and our Thunder could not compete with the much more experienced teams," stated Head Coach Rick Mann. “I am very happy with the improvement on both teams this year and especially with the strong games the ladies played this weekend. With 6 of the 8 curlers scheduled to return next year, I expect that we will be even more competitive.”
