On a weekend marred by controversy, the dedicated teams had their day Monday at the Red Deer Curling Classic.
The story swept that nation and even caught some international headlines was Jamie Koe and his team – ejected from the World Curling Tour event after a drunken display Saturday.
Perhaps fittingly, the team they faced that night, was Kody Hartung and his Saskatchewan team.
Hartung edged out, literally edged out, defending champion Brendan Bottcher 7-6 in the A-Final to win the $10,000 top prize.
The skip had a nervy takeout to win the classic.
Up 7-6 in the eighth end with the hammer against the defending champion, he saw just a sliver of the shot rock.
Hartung collected himself and fired a dart down the rink, just catching enough of his opponent’s stone to clear the house.
“I couldn’t see much of it, but I hadn’t thrown a draw in three ends,” he said.
“We were a little more comfortable just throwing it straight and luckily it just caught enough of it.”
A big point in the final came early when Hartung put up four in the second end on Bottcher. That end, along with the third and fifth, stood out for the Hartung.
“We caught a bit of a break. Brendan’s last one didn’t quite come up enough, and he gave us an easy angle,” Hartung said of the second end.
“The turning point might even have been three and five, he had some good ends set up, and we made two good freezes to bail that out.”
The skip was proud of the performance from his team the whole weekend in Red Deer.
That included getting through a difficult matchup Saturday night when they were mixed up in a controversial game with Jamie Koe. Koe and his team were ejected from the bonspiel for inappropriate behaviour and were visibly drunk during the match.
Hartung and his crew won that game 10-5 and rolled through their playoff matches Monday.
“It feels great, the guys played great all weekend long, it was fun. Always fun to win, and we haven’t won a WCT even in quite a few years,” he said.
Tyler Hartung, Jayden Shwaga and Mark Larsen rounded out the winning Saskatoon team.
On the Women’s side in the A-Final, Robyn Silvernagle and her team earned the $10,000 prize with an 8-5 win over Jie Mei.
It was a long and arduous game, one that took just over two-and-a-half hours to play eight ends. Silvernagle said it took the group a little bit to get going in the final, but they eventually found their groove.
After falling behind 4-2 through four ends, Silvernagle’s side tied the game at four in the fifth, before promptly losing one in the sixth. They scored two in both the seventh and eighth end to win.
“It was good, I think that game showed a lot of patience and perseverance, a little bit of a slow start,” she said.
“Just getting into our groove and then we really picked it up in the last half. Started putting the pressure on them and really making our shots and getting them into the spot where we needed them.”
The winning team included Stefanie Lawton, Jessie Hunkin and Kara Thevenot.
The only blemish on the weekend was an extra end loss to Brette Richards in the fifth draw.
“The whole weekend felt awesome, we lost just one game in an extra end,” Silvernagle said.
“Couldn’t ask her anything more than that. The girls played well and we worked well as a team.”
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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