By Martin Cleary
For the third consecutive year, Katrina Frlan and Dominique Vivier will experience the challenges and excitement of a Canadian age-group curling championship.
Representing the Huntley Curling Club, Frlan skipped the Ontario No. 1 team as the provincial champion at the 2023 national women’s U18 championship in Timmins, ON., but missed the playoffs with a 2-4 pool record.
At the 2024 Canadian U18 championships, which were staged at the R.A. Centre for Curling Excellence and the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club, she was the alternate on the Vivier squad from the Navan Curling Club. Team Vivier was perfect in pool play before falling in the quarterfinals.
Vivier was introduced to the Canadian championships at the U20 level in 2023, when she played second for the Bella Croisier rink and represented Northern Ontario. Croisier finished preliminary play at 4-4 and missed the playoffs.
During the next two months, Frlan will be part of not one, but two Canadian age-group championships (U18 and U20), and this time she will bring along her full team rather than being an alternate.
And Vivier, the Ontario U18 women’s champion in 2024, will register for the 2025 Canadian U20 (junior) championship, after winning the provincial title on Sunday in Kingston against the Frlan rink.
After recently winning the Ontario U18 crown and becoming the Ontario No. 1 team for the upcoming Canadian championships, Team Frlan reached the provincial U20 championship final, but lost to Vivier 5-3. Vivier will serve as the Ontario No. 1 team at U20 nationals, while Frlan will be No. 2.
The Canadian U18 women’s curling championship is set for Saskatoon Feb. 16-22, and the national U20 championship is slated for March 22-30 in Summerside, P.E.I.
“Definitely, competing in one nationals was one of our biggest goals,” Frlan said in a phone interview on Monday. “Two nationals was always in the playbook. We knew there wasn’t a lot of U20 teams and that we were a solid U18 team.
“Going to U20 nationals was not our main goal, but it was in our playbook and there was definitely that possibility. We’re happy and excited to go to two nationals. I’ve never been to a junior nationals before.”
The Vivier rink, which is completed by third Brooklyn Ideson, second Scotia Maltman and lead Clara Dissanayake, dominated the Ontario U20 championships in Kingston, winning all seven round-robin games to advance directly to the final.
“Our main focus was to understand the ice and make the ice our best friend,” Vivier said in a phone interview. “We knew each sheet would be different and each sheet would have different perks. We wanted to use the ice to our advantage.”
Frlan, third Erika Wainwright, second Samantha Wall and lead Lauren Norman led 2-1 after three ends in the final before the Vivier rink used the hammer in the sixth end to even the match at 2-2.
Vivier then stole single points in the seventh and eighth ends for a 4-2 advantage. Frlan picked up one in the ninth end, but Vivier wrapped up her provincial title with a single point in the 10th for a 5-3 decision.
Team Frlan won its opening five matches, but dropped to third place, after losing to Charlotte Wilson of the Rideau Curling Club 9-2 and the Vivier rink 10-6.
For the 10th time this season, Frlan again faced Wilson, but this time in the semifinals. Wilson scored single points in each of the first three ends, but Frlan matched that with a point in ends four through six.
Frlan continued to steal points with two in the seventh and one in the eighth for a 6-3 lead, but Wilson countered with three in the ninth to tie the match. Having the hammer in the 10th and final end, Frlan scored four for a 10-6 victory.
“For the first five games, we played so well, better than we played at the U18 provincials,” Frlan added. “We had more confidence each game and I was proud of our team. We executed our shots and came together as a team.
“Going into our last two games, we had clinched a playoff berth, but we were too relaxed, too comfortable. We didn’t have strong games either, but we were glad we got the bad games out of the way.”
For the second straight year, the Ottawa Valley Curling Association will have the same age-group rink at both the Canadian U18 and U20 championships. Ava Acres of the RCMP Curling Club accomplished that feat in 2024. Acres finished fourth at the 2025 Ontario U20 championships with a 4-3 record and missed the playoffs by one spot.
“We all have really improved as a team. We were heartbroken not to go to the U18 nationals last year and that motivated us (this year),” said Frlan, adding that new coach Byron Scott has been a great source of motivation and encouragement.
“We’re close and want to win for each other. That helps us be successful and make the shots.”
If it were possible to compete in two provincial championships at the same time, Vivier likely would have given it a shot. But she had to make a choice between the Curling Ontario U20 championships in Kingston or the Ontario University Athletics women’s championship in Sudbury.
Both provincial competitions had overlapping dates at the end of January and early February. The organizations attempted to resolve the date conflict, which would have allowed some athletes to play in both provincials for their club and university teams, but there was no solution.
“With both organizations determined to provide their athletes with opportunities to compete at a high level, the OUA and Curling Ontario are committed to ensuring a more collaborative approach moving forward, with further efforts being made to ensure such instances, whenever possible, do not occur in the future,” said a press release on the OUA website.
Vivier and Maltman missed an opportunity to represent Wilfrid Laurier University at the OUA championship, and Clara Dissanayake could have represented McMaster University.
The Laurier Golden Hawks reached the OUA women’s final with the team of Ottawa’s Emma Artichuk and Victoria Zemmelink, Sarah Bailey, Logan Shaw and Rebacca Rankin, but lost 5-3 to the McMaster Marauders.
In the OUA bronze-medal match, the University of Guelph’s Jillian Uniacke of Perth, Abby Parkinson of Toronto, Liana Flanagan of Embrun, ON, Monica Tanguay of Shawville, PQ, and alternate Sarah Woodward of Markham, ON, scored three in the sixth end and the decisive ninth end for a 9-6 decision over Queen’s University.
Carleton University rallied to tie its quarterfinal 3-3 after seven ends, but McMaster scored one in the eighth for a 4-3 win.
Medallists McMaster, Wilfrid Laurier and Guelph have qualified for the U Sports national women’s championship Feb. 24-28 in Lethbridge, AB.
Representing the Kitchener-Waterloo Granite Curling Club, Carleton University student Owen Nicholls won the Ontario U20 men’s curling title with seven straight wins after an opening loss at the provincials.
WORLD CUP SKI CROSS BRONZE MEDAL FOR JARED SCHMIDT
Jared Schmidt of Dunrobin, ON, picked up his sixth career World Cup medal, when he won the bronze in the men’s ski cross Big Final at Veysonnaz, Switzerland.
It was Schmidt’s first World Cup medal since his win Dec. 12, 2023, at Innichen, Italy.
“I’m really happy with my performance, but I’m also happy with my mental performance,” Schmidt told Alpine Canada. “It’s a fun weekend. I love it here. You can’t ask for a better race environment.
“I didn’t think too much about the skiing. It was kind of automatic and felt like my old self. It was nice to battle my way through, take it heat by heat and just remember to breathe and have fun with it.”
Schmidt won his opening heat and quarterfinal. He placed second in the semifinals to advance to the Big Final.
The medal win built on Schmidt’s performance from a day earlier when he placed 10th in a World Cup race at the same site. The 27-year-old Mont-Tremblant skier is now ranked 13th overall in the season’s World Cup circuit standings.
IVANIE BLONDIN, ANDERS JOHNSON WIN WORLD CUP MIXED RELAY BRONZE
It looked like Gloucester’s Ivanie Blondin might leave the World Cup long-track speed skating competition in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, without a medal, after her first four races.
But the mixed relay, the final race of the three-day competition, changed that.
Blondin and Canadian teammate Anders Johnson placed third in the mixed relay in two minutes, 58.01 seconds, which also matched the time of silver-medal winning Norway. The Netherlands was 1.45 seconds ahead of Norway and Canada.
In her other races, Blondin teamed with Ottawa’s Isabelle Weidemann and Valerie Maltais for sixth in the team pursuit, was seventh in the 1,500 metres in 1:54.16, 13th over 3,000 metres in 4:03.89, and 17th in the mass start in 8:44.39 after colliding with Maltais.
Weidemann was ninth in the women’s 3,000 metres in 4:01.07 in her only individual race.
Jake Weidemann won the men’s B division mass start in 8:16.01, was sixth in the team pursuit with Connor Howe and Ted-Jan Bloemen in 3:44.34 and took 12th in the B class 1,500 metres in 1:46.55.
Gatineau’s Cedrick Brunet competed in three men’s B division 500-metre races with a ninth at 35.51 seconds, a 10th at 35.31 seconds and a 12th at 35.39 seconds.
CAPITAL HOOPS CLASSIC FEATURES FOUR NATIONALLY-RANKED TEAMS
Two of the top four women’s university basketball teams in Canada will face each other Friday in the annual Capital Hoops Classic at The Arena at TD Place.
The Carleton University Ravens, the No. 1-ranked women’s team in the nation with an OUA record of 19-0, will play the No. 4 University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, who are second in the OUA East at 17-2. Game time is 6 p.m.
The Ravens are three wins away over the next two weekends for their second career undefeated regular season. Carleton went 23-0 in the 2017-18 campaign. Since Dani Sinclair became the Ravens’ head coach in 2020-21, Carleton has a regular-season, win-loss record of 69-8.
In its last two seasons, Carleton has lost only one regular-season game against 40 wins – 21-1 in 2023-24 and 19-0 in 2024-25.
The Ravens added two more victories on the weekend, using a 24-point opening quarter to spark a 68-53 win over the Ontario Tech University Ridgebacks and turning back Queen’s University Gaels 72-63.
Jacqueline Urban had a double-double performance in each game with 13 points and 11 rebounds against the Ridgebacks and 22 points and 11 rebounds against the Gaels. Kyana-Jade Poulin led the Ravens with 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists against Ontario Tech and Dorcas Buisa counted 26 points, three rebounds and three assists against Queen’s.
The Gee-Gees kept pace with the Ravens with a pair of contrasting wins, staging a fourth-quarter rally to defeat Queen’s 60-53 and scoring more than 50 points in each half for a 111-42 decision over Ontario Tech.
Natsuki Szczokin, a top-five player in three OUA statistical categories, combined for 37 points, eight rebounds, nine assists and seven steals. Emily Payne also had a strong game against the Ridgebacks with 16 points, seven rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots.
The men’s Capital Hoops Classic will feature No. 3 Ottawa against No. 6 Carleton as both teams improved two spots in the national rankings, despite different weekend results. Game time is 8 p.m.
The Gee-Gees defeated Queen’s 95-82 and Ontario Tech 88-70, while the Ravens fell 66-64 to the Ridgebacks before rebounding to defeat the Gaels 92-72.
Ankit Choudhary was the main man for the Gee-Gees, contributing 24 points, four rebounds and two assists against Queen’s and 20 points and two assists against Ontario Tech. Jacques-Melanie Guemeta added 19 points and six rebounds against the Gaels and Justin Ndjock-Tadjore posted 17 points and eight rebounds against the Ridgebacks.
Ontario Tech, which is fifth in the OUA East at 7-11, outscored Carleton 21-10 in the fourth quarter for its two-point upset win. Daniel Smith led the Ravens with 18 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.
Carleton received strong point production from four players in the win over Queen’s – Aubrey Dorey-Havens 20 points, Marjok Okado, 16 points, and Xavier Spencer and Smith, 15 points each.
GEE-GEES MEN’S HOCKEY TEAM WINS TWO, RAVENS LOSE TWO
The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees men’s hockey team strengthened its hold on third place in the OUA East, after a pair of 4-1 wins over the University of Toronto Varsity Blues and the Carleton University Ravens.
Vincent Labelle scored three goals and Peter Stratis added one in the Gee-Gees’ victory over the Varsity Blues. The Gee-Gees, who are ranked No. 6 in Canada, received goals from David Lafrance, Bradley Chenier, Charles-Antoine Roy and Mitch Martin against Carleton, which had one goal from Braedon Virtue.
In its other game, Carleton lost 4-1 to Toronto. Nick Mccarry had the Ravens’ goal.
Arianne Gagnon, Reece Mepham and Alyssa Biesenthal shared the goals as the Gee-Gees women’s hockey squad edged Queen’s University Gaels 3-2. Ottawa is third in the OUA East standings.
Carleton lost 2-1 to Queen’s as Hayden Serniuk had the Ravens’ lone goal.
LAST, BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST
· Canada Topflight Academy scored its first win on the Elite Prep League basketball circuit, using a strong second half to defeat Andrews Osborne 95-75. Waris Njoya and Logan Millar had 25 and 22 points respectively. In its opening game at Fort Union Military Academy, CTA fell 91-82 to the host school. Dylan Kayijuka had 25 points and nine rebounds in a losing cause, while Njoya and Millar had 18 points apiece.
· Nakkertok Nordic’s Katherine Stewart-Jones of Chelsea, PQ, started “maybe a little too fast” and finished 23rd in 25 minutes, 42.9 seconds in the women’s 10-kilometre freestyle race during a World Cup cross-country ski race in Cogne, Italy. Ottawa’s Pierre Grall-Johnson and Gatineau’s Antoine Cyr were 17th in the men’s team sprint. Grall-Johnson missed the sprint knockout heats by one place, when he finished 31st in qualifying.
· Wide receiver Kurleigh Gittens Jr. of Ottawa will be inducted into the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks Hall of Fame on Friday. Gittens Jr. was a 2016 Yates Cup Ontario champion, an OUA MVP, a two-time team MVP, a four-time OUA all-star and a two-time U Sports All-Canadian.
· The Tour de Gatineau was named the road race event of the year during Cycling Canada’s annual awards ceremony.
· Gatineau’s Dorothée Perron of the Ottawa Bicycle Club and Ride With Rendell’s Alexander Woodford of Ottawa were 41st and 43rd respectively in the women’s and men’s U23 races at the cyclo-cross world championships in Lievin, France.
· Under-16 skater Charlotte Babin of the Ottawa Pacers posted the fastest time out of all females in the 1,000 metres to lead local results at the Ontario Long-Track Speed Skating Championships, which returned to the Brewer Park Oval after two years of weather-induced cancellations.
Read More: Ontario Speed Skating Championships return to Brewer Oval, alongside cold winter weather
Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for over 52 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.
When the pandemic struck, Martin created the High Achievers “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.
Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.
