Another shot at a provincial crown is on the way for an Oilfields curling foursome.
Black Diamond’s Team Libbus swept its way back to the Optimist U18 Alberta Championships after qualifying through the B-event of the southern playdowns Sunday at the Lethbridge Curling Club.
It’s a return trip to the provincial championships where the team finished agonisingly close to a gold-medal performance, falling by one point in the final.
“We’ve been there before and we’re going to use that to prepare and use that to our advantage,” said skip Jacob Libbus, an Oilfields High School student. “We’re definitely a lot less nervous. Last year our first game was closer than we would have liked it to be and I think that was all nerves.
“We’re going to be seen as one of the experienced and maybe one of the stronger teams there. I think that will play to our advantage.”
Libbus, third Riley Helston, second Pacen Anderson and lead Tyler McWillie, booked their ticket to provincials in a comeback 7-5 win over Airdrie’s Desmond Young.
Down by two after the sixth end, the Oilfields squad picked up four in the seventh to take the result.
“We got our rocks in play, got everything in position and capitalized on his mistakes,” Libbus said. “Their whole team hadn’t missed a shot all game and we finally got a couple misses out of them and capitalized on those misses.”
Team Libbus opened the competition with an 8-2 triumph over Medicine Hat’s Connor Zeidell followed by a 5-3 victory over Okotoks’ Michael Steele and 5-4 loss to Calgary’s Cole Adams.
“We gave up a few points in the first end,” Libbus said. “We should have had a few, it would have won us the game. It just didn’t go our way that whole game.
“After that we knew we had to get down to business and be up on our toes the whole time ready to go.”
They were more than ready for the challenge.
A rematch with Steele produced the exact same scoreline, advancing the High Country rock chuckers to a showdown with their club counterparts in Team Palanuik in the B-event semifinal.
Libbus picked up a single in the sixth and double in the seventh for a 6-3 victory in the all-Oilfields battle, advancing to the B-event final. Team Adams earned the other qualification through the A-event.
Team Palanuik, with skip Jared Palanuik, third Liam Purcell, second Nicholas Warkman and lead Ben Helston, finished just outside of qualification with a record of 3-2 with wins over Lethbridge’s Kyler Kurina, North Hill Curling Club’s Cole Ector and Zeidell.
Steele — with fellow Okotokian Cailen Knopp at third, Max Murchison at second and Graham Barnouw at lead — finished with a record of 1-4.
The U18 Alberta Championships run March 3-5 at the Leduc Curling Club.
For more information go to albertacurling.ab.ca
