Northern Ontario curling champs crowned

NEWS RELEASE

NORTHERN ONTARIO CURLING ASSOCIATION

**********************

Northern Ontario Junior and Women’s Champions Declared

The Krista McCarville team from the Fort William Curling Club are the Northern Ontario Women’s Provincial Championships for 2009. The event was held January 8 to 11, 2009 at the Port Arthur Curling Club in Thunder Bay.

McCarville’s rink (Tara George, Kari MacLean-Kraft, Lorraine Lang) played an exciting back and forth championship game against the 2008 NOCA Women’s Provincial Champions, the Tracy Horgan rink (Jennifer Horgan, Amanda Gates, Andrea Souliere-Poland, Louise Logan) from the Idylwylde Golf and Curling Club in Sudbury.

Along with the McCarville and Horgan rinks, Ashley Miharija (Angela Lee, Alissa Begin, Tracy Auld) from the Port Arthur Curling Club and Dawn Schwar (Sandra Henderson, Janice Vettoretti, Jann Costance) from the Sudbury Curling Club now advance to the Ontario Scotties in Oakville, January 26 to February 1, 2009. They will compete against eight teams from the Ontario Curling Association for the opportunity to wear Team Ontario colours at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Victoria, B.C. in late February. Team McCarville has had this honour twice before.

New Northern Ontario Junior Men’s and Women’s champions were crowned at the Nexcap NOCA Junior Provincials held this weekend at the Deer Trail Curling Club in Elliot Lake. The Vanessa Maloney team (Kendra Lilly, Jenny Gates, Kaitlynd Burns, coach Jan Pula) of the Idylwylde Golf and Curling Club and the Dylan Johnston rink (Cody Johnston, Michael Makela, Mike Badiuk, coach Ray Skillen) from the Fort William Curling Club will represent Northern Ontario at the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors January 31 to February 8, 2009 in Salmon Arm B.C. Both the Johnston and Maloney rinks went through the competition with impressive 5-0 records.

For full results from the Northern Ontario Women’s and Junior Championships visit www.curlnoca.ca.

Next on the NOCA playdowns schedule are the Senior Men’s and Senior Women’s Inter-Regional Championships January 15 to 18, 2009 at Fort William, Soo Curlers, and Coniston Curling Clubs.

***********************************************************