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Team Koltun takes close losses at Island Shootout

Team Koltun came out on the wrong end of games of inches over the weekend. The Whitehorse curling team suffered three one-point losses - including one to the eventual champs.
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Team Koltun came out on the wrong end of games of inches over the weekend.

The Whitehorse curling team suffered three one-point losses - including one to the eventual champs - at the Vancouver Island Shootout, a women’s World Curling Tour event, in Victoria.

“Overall, we were playing pretty well together,” said skip Sarah Koltun. “We got stuck on the wrong side of the inch for a few of those games. We fought really hard and kept them really close, it was just unfortunate we weren’t able to pull off at least one more win because that would have given us a good chance to qualify there.

“But overall it was a pretty good weekend.”

The Koltun team, which includes third Chelsea Duncan, second Patty Wallingham and lead Jenna Duncan, opened with a 6-5 loss to Team Wark of Victoria, who went on to win the bonspiel.

They also lost 5-4 to Victoria’s Team Sivertson and, following a win, lost 6-5 to Vancouver’s Team Gibson.

Koltun’s first win of the weekend was 8-3 over New Westminster’s Diane Gushulak, who went on to place second with a 6-3 loss to Sarah Wark in the final.

The Whitehorse crew finished with a decisive 6-0 victory over Surrey’s Team Prinse.

“When we were on, we were really on,” said Koltun. “That was a good feeling for us. We were just playing so well together and having such a high shooting percentage as a team. And we were just really finding our groove in those games. In the other games we were still playing well, but we weren’t as much in the groove as we were in those two wins.”

Team Koltun went 3-3 at the Colonial Square Ladies Classic, a Grand Slam event on the women’s World Curling Tour, earlier this month.

They reached the quarterfinal of Surrey, B.C.‘s Cloverdale Cash Spiel, another world tour event, in September.

The Whitehorse rink’s main goal for the season is a second straight appearance at the Scotties, the Canadian women’s championship. The rink made their first appearance at the Scotties last season as the first Yukon team to qualify for the championship in 13 years. Hindered by illness, they came away with two wins.

The Koltun team is in town this weekend for the Polar Eyes Optometry Cashspiel at the Whitehorse Curling Club. They will then focus on the Yukon Women’s Curling Championship, which they’ll have to win to reach the qualifying rounds of the Scotties, this year being held in Moose Jaw, Sask., in February.

Contact Tom Patrick at

tomp@yukon-news.com