For the first time in nearly 30 years, the Kelowna Owls have won the B.C. School Sports boys curling championship.
Kelowna Secondary School skip, Logan Miron, and his rink of Ewan Murray, Ramsay Murray and Bryan Cresswell were victorious in six of seven games in the provincial eight-team round-robin event in Smithers on the weekend to claim the coveted BCSS blue banner and the 45-kilogram granite-based championship trophy.
Off to a slow start after a 12-hour drive to the Smithers Curling Club — losing their first game 9-8 in an extra end to the Carihi Tyees of Campbell River — the Owls reeled off six straight victories for the first provincial title by KSS since Glen Campbell and his team of Shane Bourdage, Jamie Smith and Dean Woodward won it in 1989.
Following the opening loss to Carihi on Thursday, the Miron foursome, continued to struggle finding their legs in the second game, but did register their first win against Elgin Park of Surrey.
From then on the Owls dominated the opposition.
Up against the defending-champion Grand Forks Wolves — with three of the four gold-medalist back to defend their title — the four KSS Grade 12 students who finished sixth last year at provincials, scored a pair of four-enders en route to a 10-3 victory.
Day 2 of the provincial championship saw the Owls score two in the fourth end and steal two in the fifth to defeat the host Smithers Gryphons 8-2 . In a second win on Friday, the Miron crew took only six ends to defeat a young Quesnel team 14-1.
With first place on the line in their sixth match, the Owls took on the Riverside Rapids of Port Coquitlam. The Kelowna squad looked to be in trouble early, but third Ewan Murray came through with a triple takeout in the first end to limit Riverside to one point.
“Admittedly, the boys have had trouble coming from behind, so Ewan’s shot really set the tone for the remainder of the game. It showed that they could indeed come back,” said KSS sponsor, Lorne Buna.
After a blank second end, the Owls pulled even in the third, stole two in the fourth, added one in the sixth and put the game away with three in the seventh for a 7-1 victory.
Still needing a win in their final match to nail down the B.C. championship, the Owls’ quartet, returning to provincials for a third straight year, defeated the St. George’s Saints of Vancouver 12-2.
“After that first loss, the team just got better and better at making key shots,” noted Buna. “Logan made good decisions calling games throughout the seven games and Ewan made important line calls when Logan was throwing skip rocks. Ramsay and Bryan were tremendous sweepers, controlling the line and the weight.”
Buna also praised the contribution of coach Justin Nillson.
“Justin worked extremely hard with the boys and enjoyed the experience immensely. And so did the team. We were fortunate to have him make the commitment this season.”
Despite playing with four first-year players, the Kelowna Owls curled their way to third place at the B.C. School Sports girls championship in Smithers on the weekend.
The Owls, with Grade 10 skip Katelyn McGillivray being “the glue that held everything together”, finished with a 5-3 record to earn the surprising provincial bronze medal.
No one was more amazed than Anna Trigalet, an exchange student from Belgium who had never played the game prior to arriving in Canada to attend Kelowna Secondary School in the fall.
“It was an outstanding Canadian experience for Anna,” noted team sponsor, Lorne Buna. “She heard about KSS needing players, so she signed up to try out. Despite knowing nothing about curling, she made the team as a third. Now she’s a provincial bronze medalist who got to see three-quarters of B.C. on a 12-hour road trip.”
Erika Ellis, in Grade 8 at KLO Middle School, played second for the Owls team, one of the youngest at the provincial playdown, while Naiomi Hayward, a Grade 9 student at Dr. Knox middle, was the lead. She joined the team two weeks before the recent Okanagan Valley championship when alternate Grace Milligan who was unable make it to the competition.
“So it was up to Katelyn (McGillivray) to bring the young and experienced team together,” noted Buna. “And she showed tremendous leadership, passion and knowledge beyond her years.”
A roller-coaster three days saw the KSS girls win two of three games on opening day, the one loss coming at the hands the eventual gold-medalists from Mt. Elizabeth Secondary School in Kitimat.
On Friday, the Owls opened with a pair of wins — 8-3 over Prince Charles of Creston and 10-4 over the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs of Vancouver — but lost a 6-3 decision to the Riverside Rapids of Port Coquitlam.
The Owls bounced back for a 6-5 victory over the Ballenas Whalers of Parksville in their final round-robin game on Saturday, only to lose a tie-breaking battle to Riverside for the silver medal.
Calm and collected veteran coach, Bob Harris, was at the helm of the young KSS team while Karen Ellis was the chaperone.
The last Kelowna Owls team to win a provincial high school title was skipped by Judy Wood (Susan Auty, Marla Geiger, Jodi Campbell) in 1987.
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