St. Albert rinks skipped by Glen Hansen, Deb Santos and Teri Tralnberg sweep into action today at the senior (50-plus) provincial championships at the Coaldale Granite Curling Club.
Hansen, third Doug McLennan, second Don Bartlett and lead George Parsons are the defending champions and fourth-place finishers at nationals.
The Hansen foursome competed at the Boston Pizza Cup men’s championship in Camrose last week and finished 2-3. They lost the opening draw 7-5 in nine ends to Tom Sallows of Grande Prairie and in the B event defeated Brent Bawel of Airdrie 7-5 and Jeff Erickson of Sedgewick 9-5 before falling 8-7 on a steal of two in 10 by Mick Lizmore of the Saville Centre. The last game was the 9-4 setback in eight ends to Kevin Yablonski of the Glencoe Club.
Hansen qualified for the 12-team men’s draw as the B winner at the Northern Alberta Curling Association playdowns last month in Leduc.
Santos is curling with third Jackie Rae Greening, second Leanne Telford and lead Diana McNallie and Tralnberg’s team consists of third Karen Stephen, second Tana Martin and lead Theresa Parsons.
Three years ago, Santos and Greening were provincial champions and national silver medallists with Santos as skip and McLennan and Parsons won provincials and placed third at nationals with Wade White as skip and Dan Holowaychuk of St. Albert at second.
Holowaychuk is playing with White’s rink from the Saville Centre at senior provincials as winners of the A final at northerns last month at the Ottewell. Hansen qualified out of the B.
In the women’s draw at northerns, Cathy King won the A, Santos captured the B and Tralnberg prevailed in the C.
Holowaychuk, King and Greening, the St. Albert Curling Club president, are members of the club’s wall of fame in the Friendly Giant Lounge.
Senior nationals are March 28 to April 2 in Digby, N.S., and worlds are April 16 to 23 in Karlstad, Sweden.
The St. Albert Lady Raiders wrap up a six-game homestand tonight in the Alberta Major Bantam Female Hockey League.
Faceoff is 7 p.m. against the Sherwood Park Royals at Go Auto Arena.
The second-place Royals (17-5-3) are nine points ahead of the fourth-place Raiders (12-7-4) in the north standings.
The Raiders are 3-2 on the homestand, including losses of 4-0 and 4-3 to the Royals.
Andrea Gauchier and Isabelle Lajoie share the team lead in points with 22 and Lajoie is the top goal scorer with 12 in 23 games.
