There must be something in the water.
The Oilfields Curling Club made a clean sweep at the Optimist U18 Southern Playdowns in Cochrane as skips Jacob Libbus and Jared Palanuik earned the two berths through to the provincial championships.
“It’s incredible actually,” Libbus said. “Going into the weekend we were feeling confident and we assumed that one of our teams would be making it through.
“The fact both made it through just shows how hard we all work and how much we all wanted it.”
Libbus, third Riley Helston, second Pacen Andersen and lead Tyler McWillie, went undefeated en route to the A-championship in the eight-team tournament.
The A-final pitted both of the Oilfields entries with Libbus picking up a triple in the second end en route to the 6-3 victory.
“We were all really pumped. It wasn’t a nerve-wracking game, we knew our teammates were going to make it to provincials one way or another,” Libbus said of the all-Oilfields final.
“It was more excitement and I’m ready to play and have been waiting for this moment the whole curling season.” The Black Diamond rink opened the bonspiel in a 7-2 win over Okotoks’ Cailen Knopp and 9-1 rout over Medicine Hat’s Jamie Dang. In a dramatic third contest, Team Libbus erased a 6-5 deficit by picking up four in the final end to usurp the defending provincial champions in skip Tyler Smith and Okotokian third Michael Steele by a 9-6 count.
“All our guys did the work in helping set up the whole end,” Libbus said. “We were already sitting shot so it would have sent us into an extra-end and I had to make a hit-and-roll for four to win the game.”
It’s the second consecutive Southern championship for Libbus and Andersen who won the title at the Bantam level last season.
So much for learning the ropes as rookies.
“The reason we play well is we all have a pretty good grasp on how to make every single shot,” said Libbus, who’s also a stud catcher with the Okotoks Dawgs Academy. “We’re all definitely looking forward to the future. First year coming in, we still have three years left in juvenile curling.
“It’s looking up right now.”
Following a year off from competitive curling, Palanuik’s first competitive season as a juvenile has gone along brilliantly.
Palanuik, third Liam Purcell, second Nicholas Warkman and lead Spencer Schneider, bounced back from the defeat to their clubmates to edge out Smith in the B-final.
Team Palanuik picked up a deuce in the eighth end to break the 6-6 deadlock and earn the second and final spot at the provincial championships.
Palanuik earlier picked up wins over Banff’s Desmond Young — featuring Okotokians Quinn Heffron, Dale McMillan and Blake Johnson — by an 8-6 score followed by an 8-2 triumph over Smith and 6-4 victory over Dang.
The Vulcan-based skip credited the coaching at Oilfields from Mike Libbus and Brad MacInnis for giving the players a voice and for being welcomed with open arms in High Country.
The Optimist U18 men’s and women’s provincial championships run March 4-6 in Lacombe. The winning teams get to represent the province at the Optimist U18 International Curling Championships in Edmonton from March 30 to April 3.
“I’m feeling really confident,” Libbus said. “We already have the schedule for what kind of area we’re going to play so we’re preparing that way and I think we’re going to start studying our competition a little bit.”
For full schedule information go to albertacurling.ab.ca
