Carleton University claims school's 1st men's national curling championship
FREDERICTON, N.B. — Six years ago Ottawa's Cameron Goodkey had never watched a curling game in his life.
Today, he's a university curling champion.
Goodkey skipped his Carleton University rink to the school's first-ever national men's curling championship by defeating Memorial University 10-4 on Tuesday.
"This has been the goal and to get here feels pretty great," Goodkey said. "It's nice to get your name out there a little bit. I haven't been curling that long. Not that many people know me. Some people had no idea who I was coming in here."
Known for being a basketball powerhouse, Goodkey says curling is now in the spotlight at the university.
"We'll have to put our curling banner up beside all the basketball ones. There are a lot of them."
Goodkey grew up playing hockey in Ottawa. After one of his morning games six years ago he and a bunch of hockey teammates went to a local breakfast spot — Rachel Homan and her rink were on the screen as they ate breakfast.
"We didn't know the game but saw some good-looking ladies and we thought we better try this sport," Goodkey said.
He signed up for lessons at the Ottawa Curling Club (Homan's home rink) the next season and has been hooked ever since.
He threw rocks every single day last year and did much of the same this year. It's led him to today's national championship title.
Laurentian captures 2nd women's title
In the women's university curling championship Laurentian University went up against Brock University for the 2019 title.
For Brock, it was an opportunity to make school history by winning their first curling title. Laurentian had previously won it all just two years ago.
In a back and forth battle Laurentian was able to make a last shot draw to avoid an extra end and capture the 2019 title.
"It's a big deal. The girls did it a couple of years ago so we're happy to bring another banner back," skip Kira Brunton said.
"Sudbury has always been a great curling town and we're so glad we were able to prove it."
The Laurentian Voyageurs had a dream start to the championship game. Led Brunton, the team scored three with hammer in the first end. But Brock wasn't about to make it easy on the university team out of Sudbury, Ont.
They fought back with two in the third end to cut the lead to 3-2. From there, the two team teams traded singles through ends four to seven — that made it 5-4 Laurentian.
The game came down to the final rock when Brunton made a draw to the button to secure a 7-5 victory for the 2019 title.
"We were really confident with that path and I knew what to throw," Brunton said. "This feels good. It was exciting out there and I'm so glad we grinded it out."
College champions crowned
Two Canadian colleges made history for their schools Tuesday afternoon in Fredericton.
In the college men's final, Concordia defeated Humber 10-4 to capture the 2019 title. Skip Adam Van Amsterdam led his Edmonton college team to the victory.
In the women's college final, New Westminster's Douglas College defeated MacEwan out of Edmonton 7-5 to secure the 2019 title.
