Meet the Teams: British Columbia – Brown, Manitoba – Cameron

MEET THE TEAMS COMPETING AT THE 2024 SCOTTIES TOURNAMENT OF HEARTS

The 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts is slated for Feb. 15-24 at the WinSport Event Centre in Calgary. Eighteen women’s teams will compete in the national curling championship. Meet the teams: 

Team British Columbia – Brown 

Having finished runner-up at the BC Scotties has not left Team Corryn Brown on the outside looking in. 

Brown and her Kamloops-based team of vice-skip Erin Pincott, second Jenn Armstrong and lead Sam Fisher earned enough Canadian Team Ranking System points to collect the second of the final two spots for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. The team is coached by Jim Cotter and the alternate will be Cotter’s daughter, Jaelyn Cotter. 

Brown, who lost the provincial final to Team Clancy Grandy, will compete in her third Scotties, finishing 6-6 at the 2020 event and 4-4 in Pool play in 2021. 

Brown won the 2013 New Holland Canadian U-21 championship with teammates Pincott and Fisher in tow and Brown earned bronze at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics. 

Pincott was a part of all three of Brown’s national women’s championship appearances while this will be Fisher’s second Scotties competition. 

Armstrong is from New Brunswick where she previously competed on both Andrea Crawford and Melissa Adams’s teams. She also teamed up with Chelsea Carey in 2021-22. 

This will be Armstrong’s fourth Scotties with her record sitting at 11-12, having participated in the 2019 and 2020 with Team Crawford and in 2022 with Carey’s Wild Card team. In 2017, Armstrong was a member of Adams’s rink that lost out to Team Kerry Galusha at the Scotties Pre-Qualifying event. 

To date, Team Brown has produced a 40-18 record in a busy 2023-24 campaign. 

Team Manitoba – Cameron 

Kate Cameron will make her first appearance as a skip at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, leading her crew of vice-skip Meghan Walter, second Kelsey Rocque, lead Mackenzie Elias and alternate Taylor McDonald into battle. 

Cameron won a silver medal at the 2017 Scotties with skip Michelle Englot and added bronze in 2021 with Team Laura Walker. This will be her fifth-straight trip to the national women’s curling championship and seventh overall, representing Manitoba, Alberta, Team Canada and Team Wild Card over that stretch. 

The Team Canada distinction came in 2018 when Englot was named Team Canada as Scotties champion Team Rachel Homan was representing the country at the Olympics. Englot’s runner-up finish in the 2017 Scotties gave her the spot in 2018. 

Walter will make her second straight appearance at the Scotties, skipping a Wild Card team in 2023 that included Elias at lead. Walter also won the 2019 Canadian and World Mixed Curling Championships with Colin Kurz at skip. 

McDonald has played most of her career in Alberta where she won a New Holland U-21 Canadian and World Junior Championship in 2014 with Rocque. This will be her sixth trip to the Scotties where she claimed a bronze medal with Walker and Cameron in 2021. She also won gold with Rocque at the FISU World University Games in 2017. 

Her record at the Scotties is 20-18 while representing Alberta, Manitoba and Team Wild Card. McDonald usually plays second but is expecting. 

Elias makes her second straight appearance at the Scotties, having competed in 2023 with a Wild Card team led by skip Abby Ackland. That team had placed second to Team Jennifer Jones at the Manitoba Scotties but earned enough CTRS points to advance to the 2023 national women’s championship. 

Rocque has strong credentials having won two gold medals at the New Holland Canadian U-21 Championships and World Junior Curling Championships in 2014 and 2015 and added a gold at the FISU World University Games in 2017. This will be her second Scotties appearance as she played alternate for Team Laura Walker in 2020.  

Team Cameron earned the first of two CTRS positions open for the Scotties. 

Tickets for the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts can be purchased at https://www.curling.ca/2024scotties/tickets/