Dylan Derksen didn’t leave much to chance during the CurlSask U18 boys provincial championship at the Moose Jaw Events Centre this past week.
The Martensville foursome came into the tournament as the prohibitive favourites after a solid run on the bonspiel circuit leading up to provincials and lived up to their advance billing, going undefeated through six games on their way to claiming the championship.
As a result, Derksen, third Logan Sawicki, second Tyler Derksen and lead Gaven Martens will be off to Ottawa in February for the Canadian U18 national championship.
The title game against Saskatoon’s Rogan Snow, third Nathan Roy, second Luke Olson and lead Josh Lussier on Saturday afternoon went much the same as most of their games throughout the week.
After the teams exchanged deuces in the first two ends, Derksen picked up another two in the third and never looked back. A steal of three in the fourth, one in the fifth and one in the sixth and just like that, provincial champs.
Derksen had also defeated Snow 7-3 in the Page Playoff 1-2 game after Snow had also gone undefeated in his round robin pool.
The Saskatoon rink then defeated Esterhazy’s Brandon Weiss 7-6 in an extra end to advance to the title game.
Derksen didn’t have a lot of difficulty on his way to the playoffs, as he opened the event with an 8-3 win over Moose Jaw’s Dayne Heisler before downing Langenberg’s Adin Clark 14-0, Saskatoon’s Joel Kitsch 8-1 and Avonlea’s Hudson Heistad 5-3 in his closest game of the tournament.
Heisler, third Blake Montgomery, second Riley Cushway and lead Laine Burnham didn’t have as much luck, as they posted a 1-3 record despite some close games. That included a 7-4 win over Kitsch, 7-6 loss to Heistad and 7-5 defeat at the hands of Clarke to wrap up their event.
The Canadian U18 boys championship runs from Feb. 4-10 at the R.A. Centre and Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club.
