Guelph Curling Club set to host OUA Curling Championship on Thursday

BURLINGTON, Ont. - Some of the best curlers the province has to offer will be hitting the ice Feb. 11-15 at the Guelph Curling Club for another installment of the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Men's and Women's Curling Championships. Each team will have one sole thing in mind: a berth in the Mar. 20-23 CIS Championships in Kelowna.  The top three men's and women's teams will qualify for the upcoming CIS championship.

On the women's side, all eyes will be on the Laurier Golden Hawks, as they will be looking to lockdown their fifth title in the past six years. Two players will be returning from the championship team of a year ago, who in addition to OUA gold, netted a CIS bronze: skip Chelsea Brandwood (Beamsville, Ont.) and second Evie Fortier (Ottawa, Ont.). Brandwood and fellow teammate vice Brenda Holloway (Mississauga, Ont.) represented Ontario at the 2015 Canadian Junior Curling Championships in Newfoundland and Labrador, where they captured silver.

Laurier's men's team will also have something to prove, as they enter the championship as defending champions, returning the same team that won 2015 OUA gold (and CIS silver), consisting of skip Aaron Squires (St. Thomas, Ont.), fresh off competing with Team Bice at the Ontario Tankard, vice Richard Krell (London, Ont.), second Spencer Nuttall (Toronto, Ont.) and Fraser Reid (Ancaster, Ont.).

They will be entering the championship fresh off an impressive 3-1 performance at the Jan. 23-24 Brock Invitational, winning their last three matches by a combined score of 22-5. In addition to OUA play, Nuttall and Reid hit the sheets playing under Team Kean in the Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling.

Mass attention at the event will also be directed towards the Ryerson Rams, who will be making history for their university, as this year marks the first time the school has competed in an OUA Curling Championship.

With this being the case, the men's team is far above underdog status, after posting a third place finish at the Guelph Invitational and a respectable 2-2 record at the Brock Invitational, in pre-tournament action. The women's team didn't enjoy the same success at the Guelph Invitational, going winless, but they bounced back at the Brock Invitational, also playing to a 2-2 finish.

The Laurentian Voyaguers are spearheaded by skip Megan Smith (Sudbury, Ont.), who has an impressive resume, after representing Northern Ontario at the 2016 Canadian Junior Curling Championships and skipping Ontario to a 2015 Canada Winter Games gold medal. Laurentian's men's team will also be participating, looking to better their 2-5 record from last year.

After narrowly missing out on a piece of hardware in last year's championship, the Carleton Ravens women's program will not have a team present at this year's spectacle. But their men's team will be looking to make some noise, headed by skip Doug Kee (Sarnia, Ont.) who will be looking to build upon a recent 5-5 finish with Ontario at the 2016 Canadian Junior Curling Championships in Stratford. Kee also has experience at the national level as a vice, where he secured a 4th place finish in the 2014 Junior Nationals.

Coming off a 3-1 showing at the Brock Invitational, the tournament host Guelph Gryphons women's team is looking to improve upon their bronze medal winning performance from last year, where they defeated the aforementioned Carleton's women's team. Last year's vice of the bronze medal winning team, Jestyn Murphy (Mississauga, Ont.), who skipped a team to a third-place finish at this year's Ontario Junior Provincials, returns, but this time at the skip position. Also returning is Jacinda Schieck, the team's lead. The Gryphons men's team will also be contending, after duplicating their female counterpart's performance at the Brock Invitational. They will be skipped by Keiran Scott (Cambridge, Ont.), who recently skipped a team at the Ontario Junior Provincials. He is accompanied by team senior Carson Walsh, who is entering his fourth year of OUA competition.

The Toronto Varsity Blues men's team finished in third place last year, and have leaders skip Richard Seto (Toronto, Ont.) and vice Geoffrey Elliott (Mississauga, Ont.) returning from the bronze medal team. The women's team has former CIS all-Canadian, Denna Caldwell (New Liskeard, Ont.), at the vice position, coming off a promising 2-1 display at the Brock Invitational.

The UOIT Ridgebacks men's team saw a quarter-final exit last year to eventual champion Laurier, while the women's team is hoping experience gained from the Dumfries Challenger Series in Scotland, part of the World Curling Tour, proves to be beneficial.

Other teams competing at this year's championship include: Algoma, Brock, Lakehead, McMaster, Queen's, Trent, Waterloo, Western and Windsor.

Tickets for the OUA championship are available at the following rates: $10 for a day pass or $25 for an event pass (valid for all five days)

Following completion of the tournament, The Ontario University Athletic Association Curling Trophy and the Women's Curling Trophy will be awarded to the winners.  The Ontario University Athletic Association Curling Trophy was first presented in 1964 by Messrs. W. Wilson and D. MacLennan, members of the McMaster University Curling Team).  Along with the trophies, OUA banners will be presented to both the men's and women's champions, as well as gold, silver and bronze medals.

Tournament play begins Thursday at 8:30 am and finishes Monday at 3:00 pm with the gold and bronze medal matches. OUA first and second-team all-star awards will be announced at the conclusion of the tournament.

A full schedule is available here.