FIRST U-21 MIXED DOUBLES FIELD SET 

EIGHT TEAMS QUALIFY FOR FIRST NATIONAL U-21 MIXED DOUBLES EVENT 

The field for the first ever U-21 Mixed Doubles Canadian Championship is set. 

After 73 duos from across the country battled it out in two separate qualifying tournaments in Moncton and Brandon, M.B., the final eight left standing will move on to the national tournament this March in Summerside, P.E.I. 

The Moncton event started with 33 teams vying for four qualifying spots. Cerys and Owain Fisher (Truro, N.S.) were the first to claim a berth by winning the A-Side bracket and  final with a five-game undefeated performance. 

The other A-Side winners were Sierra Tracy and Sean Riggs from the Gage Golf and Curling Club in New Brunswick. They also ran the table completing the five-game run without a loss. 

The triple knockout event meant that losers from the A-Side would drop to B and C brackets, provided a team hadn’t lost a third game. Winning those brackets would get you a spot in a one-game final.  

Emily Neary and Dylan Hancock lost the A-Side final to Tracy and Riggs, but battled back to win B-Side. They claimed the third national berth by defeating London, Ont.’s Charlotte Johnson and Kyle Stratton in the qualifying final. 

The fourth spot in Moncton was claimed by Dominique Vivier and Nicholas Codner. The pair from Navan, Ont. and Torbay, N.L. (respectively) played eight total games, finishing with three wins in a row to claim the national berth. 

In Brandon, a similar triple-knockout was held, with finals played on Sunday. Because of the forty teams in the event, the playoff structure was slightly different but by the end of the weekend, the four qualifying spots were claimed regardless. 

Calgary’s Keelie Duncan and Michael Keenan claimed the first spot after a seven-game grind through the B-side.  

Fellow Albertans Kate Ector (Calgary) and Justice Jacques (Leduc) earned the second berth in a similar fashion. 

Sophia Ryhorchuk and Ronan Peterson, playing out of the Saville Centre in Edmonton, claimed the third spot after losing two early on, and then stringing together five wins, facing elimination, to battle through the C-Side and finals. 

The fourth spot was claimed by Madeylin Hollins and Elias Huminicki of the Assiniboine Club in Winnipeg. They qualified the relatively easy way – they won the A-Side in four games and kept the record perfect in the final with an 8-5 win over Alberta’s Emma Yarmuch and Lucas Sawiak. 

The eight finalists will face off in Summerside in March to see who will represent Canada at the first U-21 World Mixed Doubles Championship. That event will take place in Edmonton in May.