By Dan Plouffe
Canadian curling great Jennifer Jones passed the torch with her final appearance in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, and the Rachel Homan Ottawa Curling Club rink earned the right to wear Team Canada colours next with a 5-4 victory over Team Jones in the national final on Sunday in Calgary.
Jones, 49, announced before the championship that it would be her last appearance at the Scotties, and then came close to claiming one more Canadian crown in a back-and-forth battle with Team Homan that came down to her last shot.
Playing alongside lead Sarah Wilkes, second Emma Miskew and third Tracy Fleury, Homan went undefeated in her 10th Scotties appearance, winning all 11 of her matches. Homan’s three victories over Jones (7-5 in pool play, 6-4 in the page 1-2 playoff and 5-4 in the final) were the team’s closest contests of the tournament.
The triumph was the fourth senior women’s national title of Homan’s career, which moved her into a tie with Kerri Einarson, behind Jones’ and Colleen Jones’ record of six.
“It was an unbelievable effort by my team. We needed every inch,” Homan said in a live post-match interview.
“Jenn’s an absolute hero for the game and an unbelievable competitor,” she added before pausing for a big ovation from the crowd at the WinSport Event Centre.
In 2014, after Jones broke their hearts to claim Canada’s Olympic berth, Team Homan baked cookies with maple leaves on them as a send-off gift to show their support for their chief on-ice rivals, who went on to win gold in Sochi.
“I remember watching her a million times and cheering hard for Canada,” Homan reflected. “Watching her win gold… She’s one of the greats in history.”
Homan, who was joined by Fleury and Miskew on the tournament’s first all-star team, saluted the “great team effort” and support it took to win the championship, including the babysitters watching her youngest of three children at home.
“It was a hard battle,” Homan signalled. “I’m just so proud of my team for playing such a great game.”
Fresh off winning a gold and two silver medals at the speed skating world championships the previous weekend in Calgary, Ivanie Blondin was in the Team Homan spectator box to cheer on her childhood friend from Orleans.
Read More: HIGH ACHIEVERS: Blondin, Weidemann win multiple medals at speed skating worlds
Homan will now get her chance at global glory when she represents Canada on home ice at the Mar. 16-24 World Women’s Curling Championship in Sydney, N.S. She previously won a world title in 2017.
Making her first Scotties appearance, Danielle Inglis was voted the winner of Marj Mitchell Sportsmanship Award through a player vote. The 36-year-old went 3-5 at the nationals after skipping her Ottawa Hunt rink of Kira Brunton, Calissa Daly and Cassandra de Groot to an Ontario title in January.
Lynn Kreviazuk, who won a Canadian junior title with Homan back in 2010, also became a provincial champion this past weekend, winning the Ontario mixed doubles championship with David Mathers in St. Thomas.
uOttawa & Carleton to clash in women’s basketball playoffs
The Carleton University Ravens and University of Ottawa Gee-Gees are set for an OUA semi-final showdown on Wednesday as both local women’s basketball sides won their Saturday playoff games.
No. 1-ranked Carleton dominated McMaster in the fourth quarter to enlarge a narrow five-point advantage after three to win 94-77. Kali Pocrnic poured in a program-record 40 points, while Teresa Donato scored 22 and Dorcas Buisa 16.
“Honestly, I didn’t know the program history, the top score before, so that was pretty cool to reach, but it was all because of my team,” Pocrnic said in a goravens.ca game story.
“She in no way is hunting stats or even trying to break records or anything like that,” indicated Ravens coach Dani Sinclair. “I thought it was an example of doing what the team needed in that moment.”
Four Gee-Gees hit double-digits as uOttawa rallied with a big fourth quarter to take down Waterloo 74-65 on the road. Emily Payne and Ariane Saumure both scored more than half of their 13 and 14 points in the final frame to overcome a two-point deficit after three, while Natsuki Szczokin had a game-high 21 points and Allie McCarthy scored 15.
The local rivals will meet at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at the Ravens Nest, while Toronto Metropolitan meets Queen’s in the other semi.
Upsets abound in U Sports
The Brock Badgers slayed both the Ravens and Gee-Gees in the OUA men’s basketball playoffs. The Badgers knocked off host Carleton 70-69 in the first round and then upset uOttawa 81-58 in the quarter-finals.
The Gee-Gees, who were ranked first nationally for much of the season and finished third in the final rankings, may still receive a wildcard berth for the U Sports Final 8 Tournament, while the Ravens are highly unlikely to get the chance to defend their title.
Should the Concordia University Stingers repeat as national champions in women’s hockey, the uOttawa Gee-Gees may hold the distinction of being the only team to beat the history-making squad this season.
Concordia was the first U Sports team in over a decade to post a perfect 25-0 in the regular season, but the Gee-Gees managed to beat them 2-1 in Game 2 of their RSEQ semi-final playoff series on Saturday afternoon in Ottawa.
Jade Todd and Alexe Clavelle both scored a powerplay goal for uOttawa in the big win, though the Stingers flexed their muscles in Game 3 and pounded the Gee-Gees 13-0 back in Montreal on Sunday to win the series and end the Gee-Gees’ season.
Ravens women’s nordic ski team dominant in repeat OUA title
The Carleton Ravens and uOttawa Gee-Gees finished 1-2 in the combined men’s and women’s rankings at the OUA nordic skiing championships in Thunder Bay.
The Ravens won a repeat women’s title and were second in the men’s standings, while the Gee-Gees were second in women’s and third in men’s. That matched the schools’ performances in the relay events.
Fresh off of making his World Cup debut, uOttawa epidemiology PhD student Aidan Kirkham was the star performer of the meet, sweeping the men’s 7.5 km classic and 15 km mass start events. He was joined by the Ravens’ Isaac Fortin and Colin Ward on the mass start podium.
Read More: HIGH ACHIEVERS: Surprised Aidan Kirkham experiences first World Cup nordic ski races
Carleton’s Maggie McClure and Helen McCulligh traded places on the top two steps of the women’s podium, with McClure winning the classic and McCulligh the mass start. Katherine Mason and Bronwyn Williams were also third and fourth for the Ravens in the mass start.
Local skiers earned the majority of the Ontario conference all-star awards. McCulligh, McClure, Mason and Williams were joined by Emma Holmes as Ravens women’s all-stars, alongside uOttawa’s Maude Molgat and Kate Mason.
Kirkham was a men’s all-star with fellow Gee-Gee Edward Southward, while Ward, Fortin, Kaedan Ward and Raphael Guerout were Ravens men’s all-stars. Carleton’s Kevin Shields repeated as OUA women’s coach of the year.
Ottawa high school nordic skiers hit provincial podium
Four local skiers won individual medals at the OFSAA nordic high school provincials in Lakefield. A.Y. Jackson’s Graeme Abbott won the senior boys’ open interval start race, while Cairine Wilson’s Stephan Rozin took bronze in the high school division.
Glebe’s Oscar Bereznai earned bronze in the junior boys’ open interval start event, while West Carleton’s Daniel Meisenheimer won the high school class. Results from the team relay events were not posted.
Four Fencers stab Ontario Games medals
Graeme Wood of the Ottawa Fencing Club earned silver medals in both the men’s epée and sabre events on the second weekend of Ontario Winter Games action in Thunder Bay.
Wood competed in all three weapons, placing fifth in the foil competition as well. Desmond Waller joined Wood on the epée podium in the bronze medal position, while their Ottawa Fencing teammates Jingyi (Eva) Liu (women’s foil) and Chenghan Huang (men’s foil) earned silver medals.
After a 4-1 run in the round robin, the Ottawa Hunt Club curling rink of Sydney Anderson, Toula Pappas, Brooklyn Ideson and Dominique Vivier were set to play for the medals on Monday in the OWG girls’ curling competition. Team Vivier reached the quarter-finals earlier this month at the Canadian U18 curling championships in Ottawa.
Perfect start for Canadian women’s soccer team at Gold Cup
Ottawa soccer players Vanessa Gilles and Clarissa Larisey are off to a perfect 2-0 start at the inaugural Concacaf Women’s Gold Cup, which runs from Feb. 17-Mar. 10 in the U.S.
Canada earned 6-0 and 4-0 shutout victories over El Salvador and Paraguay in Houston. They’ll face Costa Rica next to finish the group stage on Wednesday before the playoff round begins next weekend.
Mimi Rahneva 7th, Canadian teammate becomes youngest champ at skeleton worlds
Ottawa’s Mimi Rahneva had the second-fastest final run at the women’s skeleton world championships en route to a seventh-place overall finish in Winterberg, Germany.
Hallie Clarke became the youngest athlete to ever win a world title in the event, as the 19-year-old from Brighton, ON. beat the powerhouse Germans on their home track track, as well as everyone else.
Rahneva played a key role in the historic moment. Clarke elected to rejoin Team Canada after competing for the U.S. last year, as a result of the reforms Rahneva helped spearhead at Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton.
The all-Ottawa sled of driver Pat Norton and brakeman Mike Evelyn were the top Canadians in the two-man bobsled competition at the worlds, placing 17th.
Norton won four races on the North American Cup circuit this season and finished atop the circuit’s four-man standings.
Jared Schmidt cools down in World Cup ski cross, Hannah Schmidt injured
Ottawa’s Jared Schmidt placed 30th and 21st in a pair of World Cup ski cross races in Austria on the weekend.
The start of 2024 hasn’t been as kind to Schmidt as the finish of 2023 when he earned three consecutive victories.
The 26-year-old hasn’t reached a semi-final in nine races since the calendar flipped, but still sits eighth in the World Cup overall standings.
Schmidt’s older sister Hannah is back home in Calgary and likely done for the season, having injured her ankle during a qualification heat earlier this month in Georgia.
Britt Phelan, a past Mont-Tremblant alpine skiing teammate who encouraged the Schmidts to try ski cross, won her first career World Cup title in Austria and leapfrogged Hannah into third place in the women’s season’s standings.
Schmidt had been ranked second after winning back-to-back races in Calgary in January, following her first career win on the same day that Jared won earlier this season.
Read More: ‘It’s a dream’: Schmidt ski cross siblings share World Cup wins on same day
Wretched weekend for rugby ruckers
Ottawa’s Elias Hancock scored the opening try, but the Canadian men’s rugby sevens team lost 17-12 in overtime to Spain to finish its winless weekend at the 2024 HSBC SVNS Vancouver event.
Ottawa’s Cody Nhanala also played for Canada, which earned respectable scorelines but lost all five of its games to place 12th.
The Canadian women’s rugby sevens team earned its best result of the season at home, finishing third. No Ottawa players were on the women’s roster.
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