Team Mikkelsen hurried hard to a big payday over the weekend.
The rink, led by skip Dustin Mikkelsen, pocketed a cheque for $1,500 with a top finish at the Whitehorse Curling Club Cash Spiel on Sunday.
“We kind of have a newish team, so it was a good way to start the year off,” said Mikkelsen. “We got together last year — second year into things you get a better feel as a team.”
The Mikkelsen team, which includes third Scott Williamson, second Brandon Hayen and lead Scott Cole, went 1-4 at the Yukon Men’s Curling Championship last season.
Over the weekend they went 5-1 with a round robin loss to Wade Scoffin’s team, the defending champion skip.
Team Mikkelsen took the title with a 6-3 win over Team Williams in the final, scoring three in the seventh end to decide it.
“We started off really rough, had a bit of nerves at the beginning, but kind of got it back,” said Mikkelsen, 33, who made the final of the cash spiel as a member of his dad’s rink two years ago.
Team Williams — skip Doug Hamilton, third Terry Miller, second Alex Peech and lead Tyler Williams — won five straight to reach the final before coming away with a second place finish worth $1,000.
“This was a complete throw-together team,” said Williams. “I play with Terry on one of the league nights, but I never played with Alex or Doug before. It was just one of those things, my teammates weren’t available and I went around trying to find people, so I kind of put the team together. And we figured out, five minutes before the first game, where we were all going to play.”
Both the third/fourth place game and the consolation final were decided by coin tosses.
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com