Jones, Carruthers pick up pairs of wins Wednesday at KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup
REGINA — It was wins-day Wednesday for Jennifer Jones and Reid Carruthers at the KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup.
Both skips and their Winnipeg-based teams picked up pairs of wins with Jones moving up to a 3-0 round-robin record and Carruthers climbing to 2-1 in the season finale event.
Jones topped Silvana Tirinzoni from Switzerland 5-2 during the morning draw and shut out Ottawa’s Rachel Homan in a 10-0 rout in the late afternoon.
The nine-time Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title winner Jones arrived in Regina straight from South Korea where she competed for Canada alongside husband Brent Laing in the world mixed doubles championship and finished fourth.
Team Jones will also bid farewell after the event to second/vice skip Mackenzie Zacharias, who is stepping back from competitive curling for next season.
“To be 3-0, we’re pretty pleased,” Jones said. “It would be great to get some wins for Mackenzie, for sure, and just enjoy the last event. It’s a great event with lots of great fans and a great curling city.”
Jones opened the scoring against Homan with a deuce in the second then stole three in the third when Homan’s last rock rolled right through the rings.
Homan (1-1) continued to struggle misfiring her last in the fourth to give up a single steal and then conceding four more points in the fifth for early handshakes.
“It’s all about just trying to get comfortable with the ice,” Jones said. “Especially late in the year, sometimes the ice can get a little tricky, so we wanted to make some good shots.
“We put a lot of pressure on them, we got fortunate and got a couple of misses early. That kind of gave us a little bit of an advantage in the game.”
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Meanwhile, Carruthers beat Scotland’s Ross Whyte 5-3 in the morning draw and Pat Ferris of Dundas, Ont., 6-2 in the afternoon.
Carruthers and his crew are back to a foursome this week. Lead Connor Njegovan missed last month’s Princess Auto Players’ Championship as his wife Selena had just given birth to a baby.
“I think the Players’ is maybe the first curling event I’ve ever missed in my life,” Njegovan said. “Obviously for a good reason but it feels amazing to be back.”
Njegovan also said it’s weird as they’re still adjusting to their new lineup with third Brad Jacobs, who only officially joined the team in mid-March.
“We were joking that (it’s) everybody’s last event before summer and it’s our seventh game as a team,” Njegovan said. “We’re still trying to figure things out but it’s very, very good to have him fully on board here and get a couple of games under the belt going into the summer.”
Elsewhere in Draw 6, Isabelle Ladouceur of Dundas, Ont., grabbed her first-ever win in the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling series with a 9-3 victory over Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa (2-1).
John Shuster improved to a 1-1 record with an 11-4 victory against Korey Dropkin’s team in an all-American matchup.
Team Dropkin (0-3) are playing in this event without their skip. Dropkin just earned gold in the world mixed doubles championship. Andrew Stopera, who normally skips and throws third stones, has moved up to fourth. Thomas Howell is playing third, Mark Fenner remains at second and spare Ben Richardson is subbing at lead.
UP NEXT
Round-robin action continues at the Co-operators Centre with Draw 7 at 8 p.m. local time (10 p.m. ET).
Broadcast coverage begins Thursday at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT on Sportsnet, Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).
NOTES
The KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup is the sixth and final event of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season featuring 12 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams who have won top tour titles to qualify. … Both divisions are split into two pools of six teams for round-robin play. The best six teams overall qualify for Saturday’s quarterfinals with the top two receiving byes to the semifinals. … The finals are scheduled for Sunday.
