2023 Canadian Mixed to begin on Sundayin Swift Current

Submitted by Curling Canada

Quebec’s mixed team hopes to build on a streak that hasn’t been accomplished in over 90 years of Canadian curling at the 2023 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship. 

However, 13 other teams filled with experience and talent at all levels of the sport will be doing everything they can to claim the national mixed curling title when the event gets underway this Sunday at the Swift Current Curling Club in Saskatchewan.

Quebec’s Team Pierre-Luc Morissette (Jacques-Cartier/Rosemère/Glenmore/Trois-Rivières) has a lofty goal in its sights as it aims to become the fourth team in a row from the same province/territory to win a Canadian curling championship with entirely different lineups. Until last year, no province or territory had won three straight championships with different teams since Manitoba did so at the 1929, 1930 and 1931 Briers.

Team Félix Asselin of Quebec, which recently earned a bronze medal for Canada at the 2023 World Mixed Curling Championship, matched the accomplishment last year after winning the 2022 Canadian mixed title. Team Morissette hopes to follow in the shoes of Quebecers Team Asselin, Team Jean-Michel Ménard (2021) and Team Jean-Sébastien Roy (2020) to win an unprecedented fourth consecutive championship with 16 different players. 

However, many teams close to winning last year’s championship are back this year and intend to reach the top of the podium at Swift Current. 

Northern Ontario’s Trevor Bonot, who won this event in 2017, is back at the mixed for his fifth time and came oh so close in 2022 as the silver-medal runner-up. Bonot returns with the same lineup as last year from the Fort William Curling Club in Thunder Bay, featuring his sister Jackie McCormick at vice-skip, Mike McCarville at second and Amanda Gates at lead.

Also returning is Jamie Koe of the Northwest Territories for the ninth time in his career. His team wants to upgrade on the bronze medals the territory has won over the past three seasons. The team from the Yellowknife Curling Club comprises three-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts competitor Margot Flemming at vice-skip, Koe’s Brier teammate Cole Parsons as second and the lead role played by Megan Koehler, who has served as alternate for Kerry Galusha’s women’s team over the past two seasons.

Teams from the Canadian mixed have plenty of family connections, so many curling fans would be remiss to miss the Nova Scotian team represented by two-time Canadian mixed champion (1999, 2003) Paul Flemming. The team from the Halifax Curling Club features six-time Canadian women’s champion and Canadian Curling Hall of Fame inductee Colleen Jones at lead. Along for the ride is her son, Luke Saunders, who competed at his first Brier in 2023 and is playing second. His fiancée Marlee Powers rounds out the lineup at third.

Kyle Kurz skips Manitoba’s team out of the Fort Rouge Curling Club in Winnipeg. He’s competing alongside his wife, Melissa Gordon, at lead. Beth Peterson, who competed at the 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, is third for the team, and Ian MacMillan is second. The last time Manitoba won the Canadian mixed was in 2019 when Kyle’s brother Colin earned the gold medal as Manitoba skip in front of a hometown crowd in Winnipeg.

Speaking of hometown favourites, Swift Current curling fans will be cheering on one of their own to the national mixed title. Skip Shaun Meachem, vice-skip Kelly Schafer, second Chris Haichert and lead Teejay Haichert represent the Swift Current Curling Club, the site of the 2023 event. 

That team’s front end is responsible for the last time Saskatchewan won a Canadian mixed title in 2015, when skip Max Kirkpatrick led the team to a title.

Local fans can be in the venue on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. (all times CT) for the opening draw when Saskatchewan takes on Nova Scotia’s Team Flemming.

Rounding out the field are Alberta’s Team Evan Van Amsterdam (two-time CCAA-Curling Canada champion) of the Thistle Curling Club in Edmonton; British Columbia’s Team Cameron de Jong of the Victoria Curling Club; New Brunswick’s Team Charles Sullivan of the Thistle St. Andrews Curling Club in Saint John; Newfoundland & Labrador’s Team Keith Ryan of the Carol Curling Club in Labrador City; Nunavut’s Team Peter Van Strien of the Iqaluit Curling Club; Ontario’s Team Scott McDonald of the St. Thomas Curling Club; Team Tyler Smith of the Crapaud Community Curling Club in Prince Edward Island; and Yukon’s Team Terry White from the Whitehorse Curling Club.

The championship features 14 teams (10 provinces plus Northern Ontario, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon) seeded and separated into two pools of seven teams each. The teams first play a round robin within their pool. 

After the round robin, the top four teams in each pool advance to the Championship Pool, where they will play four games against the teams from the opposite pool, carrying forward their full win-loss records. 

Meanwhile, the bottom three teams in each pool will go to the Seeding Pool, where they will compete against the three teams from the opposite pool to determine the final standings and set up the seedings for the 2024 Canadian Mixed Championship.

The Championship Pool concludes on Friday and will be followed by two semifinals on Saturday, Nov. 11, at 10 a.m., pitting 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3 in the Championship Pool standings. The two winners then advance to the gold-medal final on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. while the two losing teams meet in the bronze-medal game simultaneously.

All games throughout the competition are eight ends. Also, no tiebreaker games will be played after the round robin. Instead, any unsolvable ties for position after head-to-head results will be determined by accumulated Draw Shot results.

Live-streaming coverage of the 2023 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship will be available on Curling Canada’s streaming platform, Curling Canada +. All sheets will be available to stream, with select draws to feature commentary.

For the event, team and draw information, visit the event website.

Draws and live scores are available on Curling Canada’s scores page.