Jones eyes record book!

Team Manitoba’s Jones in line to rewrite record book at Scotties

What’s left for Jennifer Jones to accomplish in curling you ask?

Surprisingly, a lot, and the Grande Dame of the ice floes is well on her way to reaching more milestones to place on top of the mountain she has already collected.

Let’s start with the big one: another Scotties Tournament of Hearts win. That would bring her to seven national women’s curling championships, more than any other curler in the country. The Team Manitoba skip entered the 2023 Scotties in Kamloops, B.C., tied with Colleen Jones and Jill Officer with six Scotties titles.

Don’t bet against her achieving a seventh.

“It would be great to win (seven) but it’s never really been about the records for me,” said the 48-year-old leader of the Manitoba team (7-1, Winnipeg/Altona) who closed out her round-robin schedule Thursday afternoon with an 8-5 victory over skip Andrea Kelly’s Team New Brunswick (3-5, Fredericton).

Jones said at some point in the future she’ll look back at her accomplishments and records, but right now she’s “in the moment” and concentrating on the task at hand, which is to win the Scotties.

“It would be great to represent Canada another time,” she said.

The win didn’t change anything for Jones. She’ll still finish second in Pool B, behind leader Krista McCarville (7-1, Thunder Bay), who had the Thursday afternoon bye. Ontario’s Rachel Homan (6-2, Ottawa) grabbed the third and final playoff spot with a win earlier in the day, then finished out her sked in the afternoon by defeating Team Wild Card #2 (9-5, Lethbridge, Alta.) skipped by Casey Scheidegger.

Jones is also in line for other milestones. If she advances to the final, she becomes the only woman to play in 10 Scotties finals, surpassing her longtime teammate Officer. She can break the record for most playoff wins with one more, breaking a deadlock with Officer at 21.

Another title would be remarkable for Jones, who build her legacy with a unit that stayed largely together over the years, with a change here or there. Third Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwen were her mainstays. In a dozen years as teammates, Jones, Lawes and McEwen won Olympic gold in 2014, a world title in 2018, world silver in 2015 and two Olympic trials.

Jones and McEwen also won a world title in 2008.

This year she’s trying to do it with a completely new lineup, and a young one at that. Jones, who calls the St. Vital Club in Winnipeg her curling home, joined forces in the off-season with the 2022 Manitoba team skipped by Mackenzie Zacharias of Altona, whose members are all under the age of 25 and had already played in two Canadian championships after winning both the national and world junior titles in 2020.

The five-player lineup includes Zacharias, Karlee Burgess, Emily Zacharias, Laura Leninitine and is coached by Glenn Howard.

Mackenzie Zacharias admitted the decision to join Jones was not hard, but came with some planning.

“There was a couple of decisions we wanted to make because we wanted to keep the foursome together,” she said. “Then we had to figure out what we were going to do. Were we going to rotate? Just making sure everyone knew they were equal parts of this team.”

Zacharias said she’s already learned a ton playing with Jones.

“When Jen has to make a shot, she makes the shot. If it’s a draw, if it’s a hit, she makes it.”

In other games Thursday afternoon — none with playoff implications — skip Kerry Galusha of Team Northwest Territories (4-4, Yellowknife) closed out her schedule with a 9-6 victory over Team Yukon (1-7, Whitehorse) skipped by Hailey Birnie, while Newfoundland and Labrador skip Stacie Curtis (2-6, St. John’s) guided her team to a 10-9 win over Team Wild Card #3 (3-5, East St. Paul, Man.) skipped by Meghan Walter. 

The final goes Sunday.

The 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts continues Thursday with a draw at 6:30 p.m. (all times PST).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/.

TSN and RDS2 will provide complete coverage of the 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, go to www.curling.ca/2023scotties/tickets/.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2023scotties/nouvelles/?lang=fr.