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Einarson adds Lenentine as alternate for Scotties Tournament of Hearts

Lauren Lenentine will be the alternate for Kerri Einarson’s team at the upcoming Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

The Gimli, Man., team made the announcement Monday after Curling Canada revealed the pools and draw schedule for the national women’s curling championship, running Feb. 14-23 in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Lenentine played lead alongside skip Chelsea Carey, third Karlee Burgess and second Emily Zacharias this season.

The Winnipeg-based club added Carey after legendary skip Jennifer Jones stepped back from women’s curling last year. With Jones at the helm, they won a Grand Slam of Curling title at the 2023 HearingLife Tour Challenge plus back-to-back silver medals at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Burgess left Team Carey earlier this month to join Team Einarson as a replacement for second Shannon Birchard, who will miss the remainder of the season due to a knee injury.

Due to Burgess’s departure, Team Carey lost its pre-qualified berths for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and Canadian Curling Trials as it had earned both spots based on 2023-24 ranking points and needed to retain three of the four players from that lineup to keep them.

Einarson, who won four straight Scotties Tournament of Hearts titles from 2020-23, is ranked second in Canada and fifth in the world.

Lead Briane Harris was provisionally suspended last year after testing positive for the banned substance Ligandrol. Team Einarson said last week it had already set its lineup for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts before Harris had her ban lifted upon appeal and was cleared to return to play.