Bantam rink advances

The Chris Silver rink from the Fort Frances Curling Club will be off to the Northern Ontario boys’ Bantam championships next month.
They earned one of two qualifying spots at the regional playdowns in Stratton over the weekend.

The Silver foursome, which also includes third Reece Jones, second Jason Bazylewski, and lead Kurt McGuire, punched their ticket to the provincials with a 4-1 record.
Jason Hoppe’s rink from Keewatin earned the other berth at the boys’ championship.
The provincials will be held Feb. 7-10 at the Longlac Curling Club.
Fort Frances curler Matthew Grant also competed at the regional playdowns, but his rink of third Mathew Nowak, second Cameron Penny, and lead Daniel VandenBrand finished in third place with a 2-3 record.
In the women’s regional playdowns, which also were held in Stratton, Karleigh Wright’s Fort Frances foursome finished tied for third at 1-4 to miss out on a provincial berth.
Wright, who was joined by third Hailey Beaudry, second Nicole Hartlin, and lead Elyssa Hughes, earned her lone win Friday afternoon with an 11-6 romp over Keewatin’s Sarah McDonald.
Sioux Lookout’s Jenna Poirier and Atikokan’s Hannah Bazinet qualified for the provincials, which will be held Feb. 7-10 in Sioux Lookout.
In other curling action, Stratton native Trevor Bonot, who now lives in Thunder Bay, topped the men’s West regional qualifier at the Port Arthur Curling Club with a 4-1 record.
His rink includes third Al Macsemchuk, second Chris Briand, and Devlin native Mike Badiuk at lead.
They now will compete at the men’s provincial showdown Feb. 6-10 at the Nipigon Curling Club, where a spot at this year’s Tim Hortons Brier will be up for grabs.