Saskatoon’s Rylan Kleiter and his teammate Brittany Tan are atop the Pool A standings entering the final day of round-robin play at the Canadian mixed doubles Olympic curling trials in Nova Scotia.
Kleiter-Tran picked up a pair of impressive wins on Wednesday to improve their record to 5-1. In their first game of the day, the duo met the undefeated team of Rachel Homan and Brendan Bottcher. Kleiter-Tran scored two with the hammer in the first end and then stole one in the second. Homan-Botcher responded with a pair of their own in the third end, before Kleiter-Tran scored one going into the fourth end break for a 4-2 lead.
After the break, the team exchanged deuces in the fifth, sixth, and seventh ends, meaning that the game was tied 6-6 entering the final end. Kleiter-Tran used the last rock to their advantage for a 7-6 win, handing Homan-Bottcher their first loss of the event.
Kleiter-Tran traded shots with Chicoutimi’s Anne-Sophie Gionest and Robert Desjardins in the evening draw. The Kleiter-Tran team would start to slow in this one, trailing 5-2 after five ends. However, Kleiter-Tran would make some sensational shots down the stretch, scoring six points in the last three ends for an 8-6 victory.
Kleiter-Tran are tied atop the Pool A standings with a 5-1 record with Homan-Botcher, who topped the Saskatchewan team of Nancy Martin and Steve Laycock in the evening draw.
Humboldt’s Kirk Muyres and Edmonton’s Laura Walker are still in the mix entering Thursday’s action. Muyres-Walker split their games on Wednesday. Muyres-Walker took on Jessica Zheng and Victor Pietrangelo from Niagra Falls in their opening game. They would score three in the fourth end to take a 4-2 advantage into the break. It seemed they were in complete control. However, Zheng-Pietrangelo came out of the break red hot, putting up a four spot. Muyres-Walker, though, were able to recover scoring a pair in six and eight to score an 8-7 win.
In their evening game, Muyres-Walker came up against Barrie, Ontario’s Jennifer Jones and husband Brent Laing, and an early slip-up would be costly. Jones-Laing would score a pair with the last rock advantage in the opening end, and then in the second end, they would capitalize on a pair of Muyres-Walker mistakes and steal four. Another steal in three allowed Jones-Laing to coast to a 9-3 win. Muyres-Walker are now 4-2, tied with Jones-Laing for third in their Pool.
It was a tough day for Saskatchewan’s third team in the competition. Martensville’s Nancy Martin and Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock dropped an 8-2 decision in their opening draw of the day to Gionest-Desjardins and then fell 8-3 in the evening to Homan-Bottcher.
Martin-Laycock’s round-robin record is now 1-5, which is tied for seventh, meaning that they have been eliminated from the playoff round.
There will be two round-robin draws on Thursday before the playoffs begin with the top three teams from each Pool advancing.
