Not only did two Salmon Arm high school curling teams go head-to-head this weekend, battling it out at this year鈥檚 regional high school competition, it was a brother-versus-brother match-up.
At the 2023 Thompson-Okanagan Regional High School Curling Playdowns at the Kamloops Curling Club, a team representing the Salmon Arm Secondary (SAS) J.L. Jackson campus competed against a team from SAS Sullivan, as they each went undefeated in their pools and ended up playing each other for the chance to further represent the region at the provincial competition coming up in Terrace Feb. 22 to 25.
Sullivan鈥檚 rink consists of lead Brayan Morton, second Ryan Cowell, third Austin Tomlinson, skip Kaiden Beck and coach Andrew Cowell. The Jackson campus team has lead Eli Rands, second Alex Watkins, third Danielle Monteith, skip Nolan Beck and coach Scott Beck.
Nolan and Kaiden Beck played together last year at Jackson and won the BC Championships along with Watkins, Nic Metcalfe and coach Darryl Horne. This year they skip for opposing teams.
鈥淚t was pretty exciting to have two separate teams and have them both go undefeated,鈥� said Scott Beck. 鈥淚鈥檓 really proud of all of them. Hopefully Salmon Arm can repeat as provincial champions!鈥�
The Sullivan team started strong, keeping a 6-0 lead over Jackson until the middle of the game. Jackson rallied in the second half to claim four points, and by the eighth end of the game, they had tied the game and sent it into extra ends.
Sullivan took out two rocks in the end and claimed the winning gold medal, with Jackson taking second place overall. Team Sullivan will be heading on to the provincials.
Kaiden and Nolan recently became U18 provincial champions for Curl BC, and will be playing on Team BC representing the province on Feb. 4 to 11, 2023 in Timmins, Ont.
READ MORE: Vernon coach helps Penticton/Kamloops club slide out silver medal game
READ MORE: North Okanagan curler claims athlete of the year award
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rebecca.willson@saobserver.net
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