It was a disappointing finish for Jordan Steinke’s rink at the Peace Curling Association Junior Districts in Beaverlodge this weekend. The Dawson Creek team fell short of qualifying for provincials after losing 8-6 in the B-Final to Devin Burkitt of Hudson’s Hope, who represented the Grande Prairie Curling Club.
Steinke led 6-4 after eight ends but allowed Burkitt two points in the ninth and the same in the tenth, giving Burkitt the win and one of two available berths to the Alberta provincial championship in January. Daylan Vavrek won the A-Final 6-4 over Steinke on Saturday night, sending the Dawson Creek rink to the B-side final on Sunday.
The rink of skip Jordan Steinke (Dawson Creek), second Tristan Steinke (Dawson Creek), third Jason Ginter (Dawson Creek) and lead Brett Winfield of Stony Plain, AB were chasing their fourth appearance at junior provincials, and were finalists last year falling short to eventual national and World champion Brendan Bottcher of Sherwood Park, AB.
Steinke beat Burkitt earlier in the weekend, topping the Hudson’s Hope native 7-3 in the A-Semifinal. Steinke started with a single point in the first end, gave up two in the fourth end but recovered with three points in the sixth and eighth ends to advance to the finals.
Vavrek of Sexsmith made the A-Final with an 11-4 semifinal win in seven ends over Darren Turcotte.
In the A-Final, Vavrek broke a 4-4 tie in the eighth end with a single point, and scored another in the ninth to extend his lead, which Steinke could not overcome in the tenth.
On the women’s side, Courtney Rossing of Grande Prairie and Janias DeJong of Sexsmith punched their tickets to provincials to be held at the Thistle Curling Club Jan. 9-13 in Edmonton.
Rossing won the A-Final over DeJong 8-5 with two three-point ends in the second and fifth.
DeJong would then edge out Kellie Henricks of Grande Prairie 10-9 in the B-Final scoring two points in the last frame to overcome Henricks’ 9-8 lead.
The Peace Curling season isn’t over for Steinke, who is one of four Dawson Creek rinks that have qualified for the Peace Curling Tour Competitive Division Championships in Sexsmith, Jan. 18-20. Jordan Steinke, Tracy Steinke, Jeff Ginter and Darrel Veiner will all represent Dawson Creek at the eight-rink tour championship.
Both Stenke rinks and Ginter qualified by finishing in the top eight of the tour standings; Veiner made the event with a 7-4 tie-breaker victory over Mark Zahacy of High Prairie, AB.
