A half dozen teams in the field of 32 remain unbeaten with three games in the books for all entries at the 2023 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championships being held at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex in Sudbury this week.
Included in that grouping are the top-ranked mixed doubles team in the country (Jocelyn Peterman/Brett Gallant), a team boasting a Brier champion and Olympic gold medal winner (Jennifer Armstrong/Brad Jacobs), the woman named the greatest female skip ever in a 2019 TSN poll (Jennifer Jones/ Brent Laing) as well as the 2018 Canadian gold medal winning team of Laura Walker and Kirk Muyres.
Joining them at 3-0 are Chaelynn Kitz and Brayden Stewart from Saskatchewan (ranked 7th in Canada) and Laurie St Georges and Félix Asselin, one spot above the prairie duet in the rankings and the back-end of the Quebec rink that captured the 2022 Canadian Mixed Curling title a few months ago.
On a local level, the Tracy Fleury - Jake Horgan brother-sister partnership picked up a big 8-3 win over Melissa Adams and Alex Robichaud from New Brunswick in the afternoon draw and were tied 4-4 with Lisa Weagle and John Epping after six ends Wednesday night, until they surrendered five in the seventh to see their record drop to 1-2.
The Northern Ontario champs will need to string some wins together to make the playoffs, with the Thursday schedule feature a morning (10:00 a.m.) matchup with Lauren Wasykiw and Shane Konings (0-3) and a late afternoon (4:00) battle with Stephanie and Adam Bukurak (1-2).
Joining Fleury and Horgan on the ice is older sister Jennifer Wylie, helping out as their coach this week, a role in which she has become fully invested since the start of 2023 or so.
"You have to be a certified coach (to coach at nationals) and I did not have that certification until six weeks ago," said Wylie, who competed at both the Canadian Juniors as well as a Scotties with Tracy.
"They asked me to coach them after the provincial win and I couldn't miss this opportunity - but there's a lot that goes into it," she continued. "A lot of modules, practice plans, ethics training."
"I am just so happy to be here."
That said, Wylie also recognizes that there is a learning curve to be endured, both for the new coach as well as the NOCA reps who are playing in only their second mixed doubles bonspiel together.
"We're still learning as we go; it's still relatively new to our family," said Wylie. "We're kind of bouncing knowledge off each other."
Teams will complete round robin play with two games on Thursday and two more on Friday, with round of twelve action taking place Saturday at 1:00 p.m. and the ensuing quarter-finals set for 7:00 p.m. that evening.
