Mackenzie Mitchell and her teammates continue to make a strong bid to do what no Newfoundland and Labrador curling rink has ever done, which is win a provincial Scotties women’s championship in the same season that it claimed a provincial junior women’s title.
Mitchell and teammates Katie Follett, Sarah Chaytor and Claire Hartlen are alone in first place after two days and three draws of play in the 2020 Newfoundland and Labrador Scotties at the Re/Max Centre (St. John’s Curling Club).
The Mitchell rink is 3-0 following two wins on Sunday, 11-5 over Wendy Dunne and over 13-time Scotties champion Heather Strong.
Strong, Erica Curtis and defending champion Kelli Sharpe are 2-1, while Dunne and 2019 provincial junior champion Mackenzie Glynn are 0-3.
All six rinks curl out of the Re/Max Centre.
There have been a number of instances of players skipping teams to N.L. junior crowns and later winning the Scotties; Laura (Ryan) Phillips, Strong and Stacie (Devereaux) Curtis are among those who have done it, but nobody has achieved the feat in the same curling campaign.
The top two finishers in preliminary play advance to the championship final, set for Tuesday night. A win today in one of its two remaining round-robin matchups would put the Mitchell rink into that Tuesday game, which will determine this province's reptresentative in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts Canadian women's championship next month in Moose Jaw, Sask.
But the young team — which won the provincial junior title last month in Mitchell’s hometown of Corner Brook — will be tested today, with games this afternoon against Sharpe, then this evening versus Erica Curtis, whose lineup includes three-quarters of the Stacie Curtis rink that won the Scotties in 2017-18, plus Beth Hamilton, who was with Sharpe when she won it all last year.
In other games this afternoon (1:30 p.m.), Dunne meets Strong, while Curtis faces Glynn. The round-robin wraps up tonight (7 p.m.) with a draw that sees Strong playing Sharpe and Dunne taking on Glynn, in addition to the Mitchell-Curtis contest.
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