For the first time in recent memory, Jennifer Jones is not the top seed at a provincial championship in which she competed.
Defending champions Tracy Fleury and Mike McEwen were named the top seeds for the Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts and the Viterra Championship on Wednesday.
Fleury grabbed the number one ranking for the women’s provincials as voted on by the players after Fleury, lead Kristin MacCuish, second Liz Fyfe, and third Selena Njegovan won the title in 2019.
2016 champ Kerri Einarson is seeded second, while Jones is the third seed. Those are currently the top three ranked teams in the entire nation in the Canadian Team Ranking System standings.
Manitoba teams Beth Peterson and Theresa Cannon are also in the top 15.
Even though the event has been chopped from 16 teams competing down to 12, it’ll still be a loaded field in Rivers in two weeks’ time.
“It’s always a great field,” Team Fleury second Liz Fyfe said.
“We always know we’re going to have to play our best if we want to win this week. But this year it’s especially big with only 12 teams, as well. It’s just a smaller field.
“We kinda know what it takes to win and we’re excited to be able to have the chance again.”
Team Einarson was the runner-up just a year ago after losing the championship game to Fleury, but with the field as strong as it is, it’ll be a grind just to get to the playoffs.
“It’s really competitive,” Team Einarson second Shannon Birchard said. “You go down the line at the list of the teams, and it’s hard to find anybody that you would consider weak. Any of the teams there can get on a hot streak and give any team a good run.”
There were no surprises in the men’s seedings with the defending champion Mike McEwen foursome back as the top seed. They’re followed by Jason Gunnlaugson, Tanner Horgan, Braden Calvert and William Lyburn respectively.
McEwen won his third purple heart as men’s champ last year during a rocky, rollercoaster first season with Reid Carruthers. But they’ve been much better this season, qualifying for the playoffs in all but one of the World Curling Tour events they’ve competed in, winning one bonspiel, while finishing second in two others.
“We’re playing about as well as we have been,” Carruthers said. “Our consistency is up from last year, so we’re excited about trying to defend our Viterra title and we’ll see what happens in a couple weeks.”
The Viterra Championship will be contested in Winnipeg at the Eric Coy Arena from February 5-9. The 2020 Manitoba Scotties Tournament Of Hearts starts on January 28 in Rivers, Manitoba.
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