Yukon curling teams are making a habit out of winning medals at the Pacific International Cup.
A women’s rink and a men’s rink from the territory both collected hardware at the 18th annual event in Richmond, B.C., April 19-23.
It was the third year in a row Yukon curlers won medals — and third in a row for men’s skip Tyler Williams and lead Bob Walker.
Team Williams, which includes Kevin Yost and Scott Gammel, won bronze in the international draw — teams from outside B.C.
Williams and Walker won silvers at the bonspiel the previous two years.
“I don’t think anyone has done that before, so it’s nice to get that third one,” said Williams. “I thought it was a stronger field this year, so we’re quite happy with the result we got. It’s always a nice fun, relaxed event to go to.”
Team Williams placed second in the international pool round robin with a 5-2 record, before losing 9-5 to Team Oregon in the international pool semifinal.
Yukon’s Team Dorosz picked up a silver in the international draw on the women’s side of the bonspiel.
Skip Peggy Dorosz, Laini Klassen, Kandice Braga and Inge Brown topped the international teams in the round robin with a 6-1 record before losing 12-9 to a rink from Nevada in the international final.
The two medals mark the sixth and seventh won by Yukon since the inaugural event in 2000.
Subzero logs win at provincials
Subzero rep team coaches took a gamble before heading down to the Volleyball B.C. Provincial Championships in Richmond, April 21-23.
Instead of sending one big team to the U17 girls championship, they split the squad into two.
“We sent two small teams to try to make sure the girls got more playing time,” said Subzero coach Melissa Laluk. “So we took a little bit of a risk. We had a team of eight and a team of nine.”
“I’m glad we sent two teams even though they were small teams and we had to pull up players and a lot of those players didn’t get to practice very much before we went,” she added. “They got a lot of playing time, got to see that level, and they got to watch some of the U18 girls too. I think it was a really positive trip.”
Subzero 1 took sixth place in Division 2 and Subzero 2 placed ninth in Division 3.
Subzero 1 went 1-4 with a straight-set win over a Pack Travis team from Kamloops. They also won a set off PVC Thunder from Parksville and then another off the Chetwynd Raiders in the playoffs.
“There were a couple losses that certainly could have been wins,” said Laluk.
Subzero 2, which included two 14-year-olds called up for the team, went winless, but won sets against Northwest from Terrace and Focus Flames from Burnaby.
Judo Yukon with medal haul in Alaska
After winning five medals in 2015 and nine last year, members of Judo Yukon once again outdid themselves at the 2017 Alaska State Judo Championships in Anchorage.
A team of 12 Yukon judokas collected 11 medals at the 58th annual event on April 22.
All but one of the Yukon medalists are members of the Shiroumakai club in Whitehorse.
Yukon’s Cassandra Jenson returned home from the championships with a gold medal for a fifth consecutive year, with first in the U15 under-128 pounds female division.
Yukon teammates Daniel Tonner, Gabriel Racine and Damon Tonner also won gold in their respective divisions.
First-time Yukon competitors in Alaska added to the medal count. Megan Roche won silver, Samuel Martin bronze, Mackenzie Tonner silver and Dawson Penner, the only judoka from the Hiroshikai club in Carcross, silver.
Other medals came from Judy Russel with silver, Rowen Kingston with bronze, and sensei Richard Zebruck with silvers.
Judo Yukon will host the territorial championships this Saturday at the Canada Games Centre.
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com