An Okotoks curler has been the key ingredient to consecutive Alberta Junior Curling Tour Players Championship titles.

Colin Peterson won his second straight tour championship despite playing with a new rink headed by Nanton’s Cole Parsons. Peterson, who normally throws third rocks for fellow-Okotokian Kyler Kleibrink, won the championship with Kleibrink last year at the Okotoks Curling Club.

This year Team Parsons outlasted the hometown Airdrie rink led by Michael Roy 7-2 in the championship final on Sunday.

“It was just making shots, communication and not letting anything get to our heads,” said Peterson, who threw second rocks for Parsons. “It feels pretty good. I won it last year as well so it’s nice.”

Parsons’ victory was no fluke. The team went undefeated en route to the title, securing a 6-5 win over Edmonton’s Brayden Power, a 4-3 win over Scott Smith, a round-robin 7-3 victory over Roy and a 5-4 win again over Power in the semifinal.

Peterson was in essence swapped from Team Kleibrink for Jeremy Harty, the usual skip for Cole Parsons, for the tour championship.

Kleibrink, second Jeremy Burnett and lead Christian Sprinkhuysen won the Juvenile provincials earlier in the month with Harty throwing skip stones. The provincial title earned the team a spot at the Juvenile Internationals, March 27-31 in Surrey and Langley, B.C., which will feature Canada’s best curlers under 18 as well as the top three teams from the United States and Japan’s top rink. Peterson is ineligible for Juveniles because his Boxing Day birthday comes before the Dec. 31 age cutline.

It was tough sledding for the young Team Kleibrink against the older Junior competition in Airdrie as the Okotoks rink finished 1-3.

Kleibrink opened the tournament with a 5-3 loss to James Keats, lost handily by a score of 10-2 to Power and defeated Colin Harty 7-1 in round-robin play.

A rematch with Keats with a spot in the playoffs on the line yielded a similar result as the Airdrie skip slid to a 7-3 victory.

“We peaked at (Juvenile) provincials and didn’t do too well this week. We couldn’t figure out the ice at all,” Kleibrink said. “We thought we had a good chance because we had been practicing and we’re going to internationals and everything.”

Okotokian Taylor Ardiel, the second for the Smith rink, saw the Calgary team’s bid for a second straight appearance in the championship final go down in flames. Team Smith finished out of playoff contention with a record of 2-3.

“We had our games with good shots and bad shots and weren’t at our best, we could have done better,” Ardiel said. “That’s the way curling goes sometimes.”

Team Smith, finalists at the tour championship in Okotoks last year, earned a pair of round-robin victories over Strathmore’s Owen Goerzen and dropped matches to Parsons, Colin Harty and Power.

In the women’s bracket, 2012 Junior national champion Jocelyn Peterman and her Red Deer rink took home the title. For more information on the Alberta Junior Curling Tour go to www.albertajuniorcurlingtour.com

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