East St. Paul rink turning heads DeKalb victory adds Team Ackland to list of province’s top curling teams By: Taylor Allen Posted: 7:00 PM CST Monday, Dec. 5, 2022

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/12/2022 (705 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MORRIS, Man., — Don’t forget about Abby Ackland.

Or Meghan Walter, for that matter.

They’re in a province loaded with curling talent, but their young up-and-coming team out of East St. Paul Curling Club proved Monday they deserve to be in the same conversation as Manitoba’s best.

Ackland and Walter won the DeKalb Superspiel and a cheque for $10,000 by beating Saskatchewan’s Nancy Martin 7-3 in the final at the Morris Curling Club.

Ackland is the skip, but Walter, the team’s third, threw the final stones. Ackland, 27, and 20-year-old Walter swapped places in the order just over two weeks ago after a last place finish at the Red Deer Curling Classic.

After winning the 20-team superspiel, it’s safe to say they have no plans to switch back anytime soon.

One sheet over, Winnipeg’s Matt Dunstone won the men’s DeKalb Superspiel with a convincing 7-2 win in five ends over provincial rival Reid Carruthers.

“We won’t change the team name just yet, but we might” Ackland said. “It’s just a bit of a process. But yeah, Meghan will be skipping now and I’ll be third. As the season progressed, we felt it would be a better lineup and it’s worked out pretty well since.”

They came into the week ranked ninth in the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) and will likely move up a few spots with the victory. Martin led 3-2 after five ends before Ackland, Walter, second Sara Oliver and lead Mackenzie Elias took over the game in the sixth with a four-ender.

“I think we’ve proved ourselves so far. We’ll go to provincials and give it our best shot. But yeah, this win is pretty huge for us. It puts us in a really good spot.”–Abby Ackland

Martin defeated Jennifer Jones 6-4 in Monday morning’s semifinal.

“I feel like after Red Deer two weeks ago, we were kind of down on ourselves for not qualifying. Our goal for this week was to definitely qualify and making it to a Monday is what you always want to be playing in,” Walter said.

”So, today, it really meant a lot to us to capitalize on that final as we’ve lost a couple this season already. It just makes our team feel confident going into the new year.”

Ackland took down two of the top six CTRS teams on their way to the championship game. They beat Alberta’s Casey Scheidegger, ranked fifth, in the quarters before knocking off sixth-ranked Clancy Grandy of British Columbia in the semis.

If Ackland doesn’t outlast Jennifer Jones, Kaitlyn Lawes, Chelsea Carey and others at next month’s provincials, their current standing puts them in good position to land one of the three wildcard spots for the Scotties.

“I think we’ve proved ourselves so far. We’ll go to provincials and give it our best shot. But yeah, this win is pretty huge for us. It puts us in a really good spot,” said Ackland.

“But obviously, you want to make sure you get your spot so winning provincials would be most ideal.”

Ackland and Oliver played last year with Kaitlyn Jones. With Jones taking a step back from the sport, Ackland and Oliver joined forces with Walter and and Elias. Walter skipped her own team, which included Elias, last year and ended the season by going 1-4 at provincials.

“It can be intimidating at times (playing out of Manitoba), but playing against the best can only make you better. So, watching them on TV and now this year playing them in lots of our events, I think it’s made us stronger and more confident in our game.”–Meghan Walter

Prior to Monday, the new-look group’s best showing was a second-place result at the RBC Dominion Securities Western Showdown in Swift Current, Sask., where they lost 8-1 to Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni on Oct. 16.

“It can be intimidating at times (playing out of Manitoba), but playing against the best can only make you better,” said Walter. “So, watching them on TV and now this year playing them in lots of our events, I think it’s made us stronger and more confident in our game.”

For Dunstone, Monday’s victory solidifies the team’s position as the top-ranked men’s team on the CTRS. Dunstone, third B.J. Neufeld, second Colton Lott and lead Ryan Harnden have won back-to-back events as they also claimed the Red Deer Curling Classic on Nov. 18.

Dunstone, who also earned $10,000, is now a three-time DeKalb Superspiel champion as he won in 2014 and 2018. He defeated Fort Rouge’s Ryan Wiebe in the semis while Carruthers beat Minnesota’s John Shuster to meet Dunstone in the final.

“Any time you get to win an event, it doesn’t matter what it is, it feels great. The guys played awesome this week, it was an undefeated week, so obviously we’re solid and we had our best game in the final today,” said Dunstone.

Dunstone and Carruthers didn’t have time to stick around in Morris as they both play Tuesday morning at the Grand Slam of Curling’s Masters in Oakville, Ont. Dunstone opens against Norway’s Magnus Ramsfjell and Carruthers squares off against Toronto’s John Epping.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31

Taylor Allen
Reporter

Eighteen years old and still in high school, Taylor got his start with the Free Press on June 1, 2011. Well, sort of...

   Read full biography