Curlers take 2023 AUS titles

Source: Evan Richtsfeld, UNB Athletics 

(FREDERICTON, NB) On the final day of the AUS Curling Championships at the Capital Winter Club in Fredericton, the Dalhousie Tigers were able to successfully defend their AUS crowns, winning both the men’s and women’s banners on Sunday morning. 

This is the third consecutive year that the Tigers were able to hoist both banners. 

In the men’s final, skip Adam McEachren and his squad played a fantastic game to defeat the Saint Mary’s Huskies 7-3. 

“Overall, it’s a fantastic feeling to get this win and take home both banners for Dal,” said McEachren. “We knew going into this we were going to be playing a really strong team and I thought that all four of us did a great job to put a ton of pressure on them and were able to force a couple of mistakes which helped us.” 

After a blanked 1st end, the Tigers got on the board first, picking up two points with a double in the 2nd end. 

Dal was then able to steal a triple in the 3rd end after Huskies skip Aden Kavanaugh missed his shot to give the Tigers a commanding 5-0 lead. 

The Huskies answered back with a single in the second end before the Tigers struck again in the 5th end scoring a double to make it 7-1. 

SMU tried their best to make a comeback, but fell short scoring a double in the 6th end and ultimately chose to shake hands after the end giving the win to the Tigers. 

In the women’s final, it took extra ends to decide a champion, and it was the Tigers who came out on top, 5-4, thanks to a nose hit by skip Marin Callaghan with her final stone. 

“I think patience was key in that game,” said Callaghan. “We had a lot of exchanges of ones and had a chance for the deuce in the seventh and I went through, but I still had confidence that we could force them to take one in the eighth and do what we needed to do to come out on top in the final frame.” 

This was a very close game with teams exchanging single points back and forth throughout the match. 

The Panthers had a shot to take control of the hammer and blank the 4th end, but a missed first stone take out by skip Rachel MacLean, who’d been hot all weekend, allowed the Tigers to the house forcing UPEI to draw for one to tie the game 2-2.   

The teams traded singles in the next four ends, forcing the extra frame where Callaghan’s heroics were able to help lift her team to another AUS title. 

“I knew I couldn’t nose it because I wouldn’t have been shot so we knew we had to roll it a bit,” said Callaghan. “Out of my hand, I knew it was probably okay, but we had strong sweeping that helped us out at the end.” 

In the bronze medal matches, the host UNB REDS men were able to score their first win of the tournament defeating the Memorial Sea-Hawks 7-6, thanks to a last-end steal of one. On the women’s side, the Sea-Hawks were victorious over the SMU Huskies 6-4, thanks to a big 4th-end score of four points. 

The medalling teams now set their sights on U SPORTS Championships in Sudbury, March 15-19.