WEEKEND WRAP: Team Homan wins record-breaking 19th career Grand Slam of Curling title

By Dan Plouffe

The Rachel Homan Ottawa Curling Club rink collected their unmatched 19th career Grand Slam of Curling champion’s trophy on Sunday at the CO-OP Tour Challenge just south of Edmonton.

Homan stole four points in the opening end and rolled on to an 8-2 victory in six ends over the Switzerland rink skipped by Silvana Tirinzoni in the women’s final.

It was a historic triumph for Team Homan as they surpassed Kevin Martin for the most all-time titles in either the men’s or women’s divisions in GSOC events.

Homan, who grew up in Ottawa, now lives in Beaumont, AB. The tournament took place in neighbouring Nisku, AB, which allowed her young family to watch the early-afternoon record-breaking feat live.

“You couldn’t ask for anything more than that to have your home Slam be the one that you break records,” Homan said via GSOC. “It’s just really surreal right now to be able to do it in front of friends and family.”

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Ottawa’s Emma Miskew also won the 19th Grand Slam of her career alongside her teammate since the pair’s earliest days of curling.

Skip Homan and second Miskew won $34,500 for the title alongside third Tracy Fleury and lead Sarah Wilkes.

Team Homan opened the Oct. 14-19 tournament with a 7-5 win over Switzerland’s Xenia Schwaller, then lost 8-4 to Italy’s Stefania Constantini before beating Sweden’s Isabella Wrana 6-5 and Japan’s Sayaka Yoshimura 7-4 to finish the preliminary round 4-1.

The 2024 world champions then topped Manitoba’s Kerri Einarson 9-3 in the quarter-finals and Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg 5-4 in the semis to reach the final.

WATCH | Rachel Homan beats Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni for historic 19th Grand Slam title

Already leading the women’s career GSOC champions list, Team Homan beat Tirinzoni to tie Martin’s record when they met in the final of the Sept. 23-28 AMJ Masters.

In between, Homan won Curling Canada’s Pointsbet Invitational in Calgary with a perfect record against Canadian competition.

Team Homan’s history-making run started 13 years ago with a GSOC title at the 2012 Masters in Brantford, ON.

With Homan at skip, Miskew at third and fellow Ottawa natives Alison Kreviazuk at second and Lisa Weagle at lead, Team Homan was perfect at that event, where they won the final over Chelsea Carey, who’d beaten Tirinzoni in the semis.

4 OTTAWA PLAYERS HELP CANADA TO OPENING WIN AT U17 WOMEN’S SOCCER WORLD CUP

Four local players helped propel Team Canada to a 4-1 victory over Nigeria in their tournament-opening match at the 2025 FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco.

Molly Hale assisted on Canada’s opening goal in the second minute of the contest, which was tied 1-1 at halftime before the Canadians pushed ahead with goals in the 73rd, 80th and 86th minutes.

Ottawa South United Force products Mya Angus and Naomi Lofthouse both started the match for Canada alongside Hale, who surged ahead with a run into Nigeria’s penalty box before feeding Gabriela Istocki for a tap-in goal.

Defender Angus and forward Hale were substituted out in the 61st and 72nd minutes respectively, while forward Lofthouse played the full 90.

Now based at the National Development Centre in Toronto, Hale is a Futuro Soccer Academy product who only turned her full attention to soccer in recent years, having previously excelled in ‘AA’ hockey with the Nepean Wildcats as well as cross-country running and basketball at Nepean High School.

Called in as a last-moment injury replacement for co-captain Emma Reda, OSU’s Felicia Hanisch was also on the Canadian bench for the contest.

Defender Reese Kay had helped Canada dramatically earn its berth in the World Cup earlier this season, but was injured in the lead-up to the global tournament and was not available for selection.

Read More: 3 local Team Canada U17 players are World Cup-bound following rousing qualifier comeback

2024-CHAMPION GEE-GEES WOMEN’S ULTIMATE TEAM TAKES NATIONAL SILVER

The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s ultimate team returned to the national podium with a silver medal performance at the 2025 Canadian University Ultimate Championships, held from Oct. 17-19 in Brampton.

The Gee-Gees went 2-1 in pool play with 10-7 and 10-9 victories over Sherbrooke and Laval and a 15-9 loss to Manitoba. In the Sunday playoffs under cloudy/rainy skies, the Gee-Gees took down McGill 9-7 in the quarter-finals to earn a rematch with Manitoba in the semis.

This time uOttawa prevailed as Lilianne Shannon ensured the Gee-Gees a medal and a return trip to the championship game with an end zone grab on universe point for a 9-8 triumph.

Ottawa never led in the final but drew very close at 11-9 before the University of Toronto prevailed for a 13-9 championship game win.

It was Toronto’s fourth title since the event began in 1995 in Ottawa and moved them into third place in all-time championships behind the University of British Columbia (five) and uOttawa (six).

Both the Gee-Gees women’s and open teams entered the tournament as reigning national champions, having earned the double in 2024.

It was the first national title in program history for uOttawa’s open team last season. This year, the open Gee-Gees won their first four games but lost the last two to place fourth overall.

GEE-GEES WOMEN’S RUGBY TEAM FALLS IN CONFERENCE FINAL, ADVANCES TO NATIONALS

The Gee-Gees women’s rugby team gave up two trys in the first 10 minutes and trailed 27-7 at halftime en route to a 41-19 defeat to the Université Laval Rouge et Or on the road Saturday.

Laval is the only team to beat uOttawa this year, following the Gee-Gees’ 5-1 regular season and 42-26 playoff win over Concordia.

It was the eighth time in a row the Rouge et Or and Gee-Gees have met in the Quebec conference championship game.

Both teams will compete in the U Sports national championship tournament from Oct. 29-Nov. 2 at UBC, the reigning Canadian university champions.

RAVENS MEN’S SOCCER MOVES ON TO OUA SEMIS WITH EXTRA-TIME WINNER

The Carleton University Ravens men’s soccer team scored the only goal of the game deep into extra time to prevail 1-0 on the road at Toronto Metropolitan University in the Ontario University Athletics quarter-finals Saturday night.

Rookie Ravens striker Adam Ross played the hero’s role as the Ravens returned to the site of their quarter-final defeat in last year’s playoffs.

Carleton produced a patient team build-up with numerous passes before moving into the TMU box. Then Yusuf Osman made use of the smallest of openings to fire a volley over to Ross, who headed home the winning goal in the 116th minute.

The Ravens will head back to Toronto for the Oct. 25 semi-finals to take on the west division-champion York Lions, who went 10-1-2 in the regular season.

The Gee-Gees’ women’s soccer season came to an end with a 1-0 quarter-final defeat at the University of Toronto, which scored in the 88th minute.

The uOttawa football team escaped a nervy 16-7 fourth-quarter deficit to the Toronto Varsity Blues by scoring 16 points inside the last seven minutes to win 23-16 and book a road playoff date with Windsor on Oct. 25.

ALGONQUIN WOLVES MEN’S SOCCER REACHES OCAA FINAL FOUR

Cristian Aviles-Moli scored the only goal of the match in the 57th minute as the Algonquin College Wolves booked their place in the provincial championship tournament with a 1-0 victory over the Sheridan Bruins on home turf Saturday afternoon.

The Wolves won their Ontario quarter-final encounter following an east division-best 9-1 regular season record and a 4-1 win over Fanshawe in the opening round of the playoffs.

The OCAA final four will be hosted next weekend by the Humber Hawks, who topped the west division with a perfect 10-0 record and beat Niagara 5-0 in the quarter-finals.

The Wolves women’s soccer team’s season came to an abrupt end with a 2-0 home-field defeat to Humber in the quarter-final round of the OCAA playoffs. Algonquin finished the season with seven clean sheets and a 10-2 overall record.

CARLETON RAVENS’ DYLAN ROUSE 3RD AT OUA MEN’S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS

Dylan Rouse of the Carleton Ravens was the individual bronze medallist at the Oct. 18-19 OUA men’s golf championships in Oshawa.

The product of the Kevin Haime Golf Centre shot rounds of 72 and 70 to finish 2-under, four shots back of the winning total and third-best in the field of 72 golfers.

The Ravens women finished fifth in the team event at the OUAs. Claire Stoney was the top golfer individually, placing eighth. The Ravens were seventh and the Gee-Gees ninth in the men’s competition.

NEPEAN HIGH SCHOOL WINS OFSAA BOYS’ GOLF TEAM SILVER MEDAL

The Nepean Knights won the silver medal in the team competition at the OFSAA high school provincial boys’ golf championships in Lindsay.

Chase Jerome, Lukas Zubec and Chase Brooks combined for a two-round total of 462 strokes, which was seven back of champion St. Michael’s College from Toronto and second-best out of the top 20 teams from across Ontario.

Jerome fired an opening-round 3-under 69 to top the leaderboard after day one and then shot 5-over 77 on the second day to finish five away from the winning individual score. All Saints’ Kian Gauthier, a junior hockey player for the Carleton Place Canadians, placed sixth.

2 OTTAWA CHAMPS IN TORONTO WATERFRONT HALF-MARATHON EVENTS

Ottawa’s Tommy Nobbs dominated the half-marathon race at the Saturday’s Toronto Waterfront Marathon event. His time of 1:03:28 was one minute and 50 seconds better than any other challenger as he set a pace of three minutes per kilometre in the 21.0975 km competition.

Nobbs, who finished sixth in the Otto’s 10K during Ottawa Race Weekend back in the spring, told Canadian Running Magazine that he’d been running 130 miles per week in the lead-up to the event. He is targeting December’s Marathon Project race in Arizona as the highlight of his season.

Three-time Paralympian Josh Cassidy, who represented the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club throughout his career, won the wheelchair half-marathon in 48:30.

3 LOCAL YOUTH TEAMS TO PLAY IN OPDL CHARITY SHIELD FINALS

The Ottawa TFC U15 boys’ soccer team showed they’ve got the Ottawa South United Force’s number in Ontario Player Development League play as they downed OSU for a third time this season in a semi-final showdown on Saturday at George Nelms Sports Park in Manotick.

The Force lost only four times overall in 23 OPDL contests, but three of those defeats came at the hands of Ottawa TFC, which drew full-house crowds to Millennium Park for the earlier matchups.

Playing on OSU turf for the first time in their three meetings for the OPDL Charity Shield playoff semi-final round, Ottawa TFC received goals from Josh-Yvan Nzokou and Isaac Gallard in the 2-0 victory. Sebastian Boissonneault recorded the clean sheet in goal.

The Ottawa TFC U15 girls travelled farther to Oakville but returned with an equally impressive playoff road win as they downed Rush Canada 4-2. Lilian Gauthier scored twice for the reds, while Brooke Parsons and Kalina Ghie had the other goals.

The Force U16 boys advanced to the Charity Shield final with a wild penalty-kicks victory over Vaughan Sunday afternoon on the road. OSU, which had lost to Vaughan twice in their previous three meetings, prevailed 9-8 in the shootout contest to advance to the Oct. 25-26 championship weekend.

The Force U14 boys lost 2-1 to London TFC on Sunday at George Nelms, while their U16 girls fell to Vaughan in the semi-finals.

4 OTTAWA ATHLETES CHOSEN FOR $10,000 PETRO-CANADA FACE PROGRAM GRANTS

Four local athletes have been selected to receive $10,000 grants through the Petro-Canada Fuelling Athlete and Coaching Excellence program.

Athletes with the potential to reach Olympic or Paralympic Games are nominated by their national sports organizations for the grant and are selected by representatives from Petro‑Canada, the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Canadian Paralympic Committee and the Coaching Association of Canada.

Often used to support training, equipment, coach education and travel expenses for competitions, the recipients receive $5,000 themselves and $5,000 for their coach.

Among this year’s 55 FACE grant recipients are Ottawa’s Ella Lindsay, who is coached by Fernando Henderson of the Nepean-Ottawa Diving Club, gymnastics’ Mackenzie Grant (Lauren Mooney, Edge), athletics’ Kiana Gibson (Steve Weiler, UBC) and taekwondo’s Laila Khan (George Koh, Phoenix TKD).

Khan will soon be competing in the Taekwondo World Championships from Oct. 24-30 in China alongside Team Canada’s Koh, who will also be coaching 2025 FISU Games bronze medallist Leonarda Andric from Phoenix TKD at the event.

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