Jones Looks To Make History In Sydney

Jennifer Jones will begin her quest for history on Saturday when the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts gets underway at Centre 200 in Sydney, N.S.

Jones heads into the 2019 Scotties with six past victories, including last year at Penticton, B.C., at the Canadian Women’s Curling Championship, tying her with her longtime teammate Jill Officer and Nova Scotia’s legendary skip Colleen Jones.

Officer, who has stepped away from competitive curling this season, will be the alternate for Jennifer Jones’s Team Canada lineup in Sydney.

Jones, with her current Winnipeg team of vice-skip Kaitlyn Lawes, new second Jocelyn Peterman, lead Dawn McEwen, Officer at alternate will open play on Saturday night (5:30 p.m. Saskatchewan time) against Saskatchewan’s Robyn Silvernagle 

The first draw of the 2019 Scotties will be Saturday at  12:30 p.m., which is when home-province hopeful Jill Brothers and her Nova Scotia team from Halifax hits the ice for the first time, taking on B.C.’s Sarah Wark (Abbotsford).


Also in that first draw will be 2017 Scotties champ Ontario’s Rachel Homan (Ottawa), who is pursuing her fourth Canadian title in the past seven years, and will be taking on 2016 Scotties silver-medallist Krista McCarville of Northern Ontario (Thunder Bay), while 2016 Scotties champ Chelsea Carey of Alberta (Calgary) is up against Manitoba’s Tracy Fleury (East St. Paul).

On Friday night, Casey Schiedigger of Lethbridge became the wild-card team with a victory over Kerri Einarsson of Winnipeg. as she is the 16th and final entry at the Scotties. 

he 16 teams are split into two pools of eight, based on their Canadian Team Ranking System standing as of Dec. 31; the Wild Card winner will be the No. 3 seed.

They will play seven round-robin games within their pool, with the top four teams in each pool moving into the Championship Pool. The four teams from Pool A will play the four teams from Pool B Thursday and Friday, and then the top four win-loss records (including the preliminary round) will move into the traditional Page playoffs beginning Saturday.


The gold-medal game is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 24; the winner will represent Canada at the 2019 LGT World Women’s Curling Championship, presented by Pioneer Hi-Bred, March 16-24 in Silkeborg, Denmark, and also will return as Team Canada to the 2020 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Moose Jaw, Sask.

Teams listed according to seeding, and listed in order of skip, vice-skip, second, lead, alternate, coach; hometown and CTRS ranking as of Dec. 31)

POOL A 

1. Ontario, Rachel Homan (Emma Miskew, Joanne Courtney, Lisa Weagle, Marcel Rocque; Ottawa, 1)
4.  Manitoba, Tracy Fleury (Selena Njegovan, Liz Fyfe, Kristin MacCuish, Taylor McDonald, Andrea Ronnebeck; East St. Paul, 4)
5. Alberta, Chelsea Carey (Sarah Wilkes, Dana Ferguson, Rachel Brown, Dan Carey; Calgary, 6)
8. British Columbia, Sarah Wark (Kristen Pilote, Carley Sandwith, Jen Rusnell, Michelle Dunn, Rick Fewster; Abbotsford, 26)
9. Northern Ontario, Krista McCarville (Kendra Lilly, Jen Gates, Sarah Potts, Lorraine Lang, Rick Lang; Thunder Bay, 30)
12. Nova Scotia, Jill Brothers (Erin Carmody, Sarah Murphy, Jenn Brine, Kim Kelly, Taylor Ardiel; Halifax, 53)
13. Quebec, Gabrielle Lavoie (Patricia Boudreault, Anna Munroe, Julie Daigle, Marie-France Larouche, Daniel Charette; Quebec City/Saint-Romuald, NR)

16. Nunavut, Jenine Bodner [throws second] (Jennifer Blaney [throws fourth], Alison Griffin [throws third], Megan Ingram, Sadie Pinksen, Susanne Martin; Iqaluit, NR)

POOL  B

2. Team Canada, Jennifer Jones (Kaitlyn Lawes, Jocelyn Peterman, Dawn McEwen, Jill Officer, Viktor Kjäll; Winnipeg, 
3. Wild Card:  Casey Schiedigger (Carrie-Anne McTaggart, Jessie Haughian, Kristie Moore)
6. Saskatchewan, Robyn Silvernagle (Stefanie Lawton, Jessie Hunkin, Kara Thevenot, Marliese Kasner, Lesley McEwan; North Battleford, 8)
7. Prince Edward Island, Suzanne Birt (Marie Christianson, Meaghan Hughes, Michelle McQuaid, Mitch O’Shea; Charlottetown, 22)
10. Northwest Territories, Kerry Galusha (Sarah Koltun, Brittany Tran, Shona Barbour, John Epping; Yellowknife, 31)
11. New Brunswick, Andrea Crawford (Jillian Babin, Jennifer Armstrong, Katie Forward, Charlie Sullivan; Saint John, 44)
14. Yukon, Nicole Baldwin (Hailey Birnie, Ladene Shaw, Helen Strong, Wade Scoffin; Whitehorse, NR)

15. Newfoundland/Labrador, Kelli Sharpe (Stephanie Guzzwell, Beth Hamilton, Carrie Vautour, Michelle Jewer, Leslie Anne Walsh; St. John’s, NR)

(Curling Canada)