Stratton woman 2 inches shy of gold at nationals

Ken Johnston

Two teams with connections to Stratton competed in the national university curling championships two weekends ago and one of them nearly won it all!
Jackie (nee Bonot) McCormick(formerly of Stratton) skipped her University of Western Ontario teammates, Mackenzie Klages, Susan Kovacs and Pam McDermid to their second straight Ontario championship in February.
At the same time Lisa Bolen and Danielle Shrumm (both formerly of Stratton) competed on the University of Manitoba team that qualified for the nationals March 26-28.
Both teams made the trip to Regina, Saskatchewan where they competed against U. of Regina, U. of Saskatchewan, Brandon Univ., U. of Lethbridge and U. of Alberta.
McCormick said that they finished the round robin competition 4-2 losing to the other two teams that made the finals. “In both games, against Saskatchewan and Alberta, we started out bad,” said McCormick. They fell behind 6-1 early in both of the games but fought back in both of them. Against Saskatchewan it all came down to the last rock, but McCormick’s team lost by one. Against Alberta they were two down coming home and lost. McCormick chalked up the rough starts to the fact that they were not given a ten minute practise before each game like most other major curling events allow.
Other than that their huge core of fans that travelled to Regina were not disappointed. They won their first game against Brandon on Jackie’s last shot of the last end.
Game two was against Saskatchewan.
Game three it was all Stratton. They played U. of Manitoba and had a lot of fun. McCormick won the game easily but said it was fun to play her hometown competitors.
Game four McCormick blew Lethbridge out of the water.
Game five was against Alberta.
Game six against Regina was a close one but McCormick came out on top.
The 4-2 record left them tied for second with Alberta, but because Alta. beat them they dropped to third place. However, the top team, Sask. got a bye to the finals. Facing Alta. again McCormick said it was tight game until the 8th end when they stole 3 from Alta. “We then blanked the 9th and ran them out of rocks in the 10th.”
Meeting Sask. in the finals, McCormick could smell gold around the bend. “It was a one point game right to the end. We were one point up or down throughout the whole game.” It was tied coming home and McCormick had the hammer. After missing her first shot of the 10th she had to draw to the button with her last to win it all. Her rock barely nicked another rock in the house and stopped about two inches short of the button.
Two inches shy of gold, McCormick said that while it was disappointing silver is still nice. But her goal now is to return to the nationals next year and win it all. Next year is the year to qualify for the world university championships which will be held the following year in Austria.
Her fellow Stratton competitors finished 5th overall.
McCormick said the event was very well organized and that the ice was quick with good curl.