Duo undaunted by delay Provincial mixed-doubles champs finally set to curl for national glory By: Jason Bell Posted: 7:00 PM CST Friday, Jan. 22, 2021

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This article was published 21/01/2021 (1337 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Krysten Karwacki has grown accustomed to throwing first but showed no uneasiness when entrusted with the final rock in her hand last February.

The Winnipeg curler and long-time lead in women’s play was simply dynamite in partnership with Derek Samagalski at the 2020 provincial mixed doubles championship in Brandon, and the first-time teammates rolled to the Manitoba title.

Karwacki, 29, delivered the first and fifth rocks, while Samagalski tossed the second, third and fourth stones. They definitely did it the hard way, coming up through the C side and playing 10 games in all, culminating with a convincing triumph over the home-town pair of Stacey Fordyce and Steve Irwin.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the nationals a month later in Portage, however, the duo gets a carryover. Curl Manitoba cancelled provincials, so Karwacki and Samagalski will represent Manitoba at the ’21 Home Hardware Canadian mixed doubles championship inside the Calgary bubble, March 18-25.

The event follows the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and Tim Horton’s Brier at Markin MacPhail Centre.

Used to setting up ends and not capping them off, Karwacki said having to make the team’s last shot each end, while different, certainly isn’t daunting.

“It’s a different type of pressure but it’s a lot of fun because I don’t get to play those kinds of shots and have that pressure in a typical four-person game. It’s a kind of stress that I enjoy,” she said, earlier this week. “It’s kind of crazy to have the feeling where your shot could make or break the game.

“I try not to think about how much is riding on each shot. I just try to stay in the moment.”

Karwacki won back-to-back Manitoba junior crowns (2010, 2011) with St. Vital’s Breanne Meakin. She also captured the 2013 national university title as part of a Manitoba Bisons team, skipped by Meakin, and was named the all-star lead of the event in Kamloops, B.C.

She played lead for Darcy Robertson of Assiniboine Memorial during the 2019-20 season and has been aligned with Cathy Overton-Clapham and Jill Thurston in the past.

Karwacki said her comfort level is highest with touch shots and that melds well with Samagalski, a four-time Manitoba men’s champion and one of the country’s finest hitters at the second position.

“I’ve been a lead for a long time, so I think it’s pretty key to have someone who can throw draws consistently,” she said. “(Derek) has the skillset to throw pretty much any shot there is, and he’s a really supportive teammate. If I don’t make one exactly like I want to, he’s super positive and that really helps a lot.”

To say she’s charged up about competing in Calgary would be a huge understatement.

“When we found out (from Curl Manitoba), I was on Cloud 9 the whole day, it was an amazing moment, to be honest,” Karwacki said. “There are going to be tons of great players and great teams there, so it’s going to be a wild experience.”

Her brother-in-law, Reid Carruthers, who plays alongside Samagalski on the Mike McEwen quartet from West St. Paul suggested the union.

Karwacki isn’t a household name in Manitoba but should be, said Samagalski.

“There’s a lot of great curlers here that maybe don’t go and play in some of the bigger events, so they don’t get their name out as much. But she’s really good,” said the Carberry resident. “She has exceptional draw weight and I don’t recall her missing many shots (at the ’20 provincials), and that made it very easy on me.

“We had a lot of fun together and kept it pretty loose and it worked. We’re hoping in a couple of months we can have the same mentality and things start rolling again.”

Neither has practised since early November when code-red rules forced curling clubs to shut their doors. Yet, in a season of frustration there are shining moments ahead.

Samagalski will compete in his sixth Brier in Calgary (March 5-14) — as McEwen reprises its role as a wild-card team, one of 18 men’s crews in the field — and then joins Karwacki just a few days later for the mixed doubles.

Few details have been released on the field size and format.

Each province and territory is expected to send a representative, while at least another dozen teams from Curling Canada’s ranking list will participate.

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This week, Steven Hopfner of Ste. Rose du Lac was named one of five recipients of the inaugural Women Curling Leaders’ Circle Gender Equity Awards.

The initiative was launched in December to support new projects and ideas that attract females of all ages across Canada to the sport of curling. All winners receive a grant of $2,000 for their program.

Hopfner, the only Manitoban to earn an award, is organizing a girls-only league in the Ste. Rose Curling Rink, giving players the opportunity to skip teams — something they weren’t doing in the existing youth mixed league.

“It’s really exciting. We’re hoping to attract 30 girls to the league. I hope it gives our club a real kickstart (when curling returns),” said Hopfner, a dad of two daughters. “I started a girls’ fast-pitch league two years ago and we’re up to 60 girls. I’m kind of running with the same approach.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell

Jason Bell
Sports editor

Jason Bell wanted to be a lawyer when he was a kid. The movie The Paper Chase got him hooked on the idea of law school and, possibly, falling in love with someone exactly like Lindsay Wagner (before she went all bionic).

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