McMaster men's curling kicked off their season this past November with many invitationals ahead as they look to win big

The McMaster University men's curling season officially started in Guelph on Nov. 11. The Marauders faced three teams in the University of Guelph invitational in their first competition of the season. In their first game they faced off against Wilfrid Laurier University, the 2022-2023 Ontario University Athletics champions.

This challenge at the start of the season was not the only hardship this team has had to endure so far, with many key players leaving the team in their last offseason.

The team's only two returning players this year are Scott McLellan and Daniel Van Veghel. The graduation of Troy Stoner and Thomas Szasz would leave major gaps in the team that the current roster would have to fill.

It's mostly a new team [this year]. A lot of turnover especially in the back end, so you got to just kind of rebuild the entire team. We had a lot of new players.

Benjamin Winchester, second-year player, Marauders men's curling team

With these changes in roster, the team was left to rebuild mostly from scratch, leading to many of the current challenges they're facing this year.

“We didn’t have the greatest start, score wise, but it's been a steady improvement,” said Winchester.

Coming into this season, the team also welcomed in a new head coach. The team's previous head coach was Lori Eddey, an experienced curler who spent time at the national level as a player.

Eddey was replaced this season by Byron Scott, who spent the last seven years coaching at the University of Guelph before leaving to coach the current McMaster team.

Thus far, Scott has proven to be a great fit for the current Marauders' curling team. He consistently emphasizes mindful habits for the current players, who seem to resonate with them quite well.

“[Scott] is big into sports psychology, so he’ll mention a lot of the time pre-game what to be thinking and he’s tried to instill good habits in us. Instead of getting down if we miss a shot, [Scott says to] think "clean slate and just stay steady,"” said Winchester.

Despite some changes to the team dynamic this season, the Marauders have been able to learn and adapt to both each other and their new head coach. They've learned to play off of one another and have been able to see better results.

“We’ve gotten our communication down now. That was one of the big things with a new team; you don’t know how everyone communicates, with hand signals or other little things," said Winchester.

We’ve gotten our communication down now. That was one of the big things with a new team, you don’t know how everyone communicates, with hand signals or other little things.

Benjamin Winchester, second-year player, Marauders men's curling team

This season, the Marauders will hope to capture an OUA title after just falling short of the finals last year. Their loss to Queen's University ended in a 9-2 score.

“Personally, I’d like us to win [an OUA] quarterfinal game. That’s always been the goal... Always a bit more than that, but a quarterfinal game win would be nice,” said Winchester.

Scott and the team's newcomers will hope to make a big name for themselves as the season comes its peak.

McMaster women’s curling team wraps up yet another successful season with a win at the OUA championship, places fifth at U Sports Championships

The McMaster University women's curling team just wrapped up another impressive, and perhaps underappreciated, season. Notably, the team won the 2023 Ontario University Athletics Championships and finished fifth at the national U SPORTS Championships

Hosted by Ontario Tech University, the OUA Curling Championships took place over Feb. 3 to Feb 5. The championships kicked off with a four-game round-robin on Friday morning followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals.  

By the end of the round-robin, the Marauders had a record of three wins and one loss. McMaster went on to win against the Western University Mustangs in the quarterfinals with a score of seven to three and the Queens University Gaels in the semifinals, eight to one.  

The championship game came down to a close competition between McMaster and the Laurentian University Voyageurs on Sunday afternoon. After some back-and-forth action, McMaster broke the three-to-three tie in the eighth and final end to win the 2023 OUA Championships

The OUA title is the fourth in McMaster women’s curling program history. A few Mac athletes received recognition with Evelyn Robert named as OUA first team all-star, while Grace Lloyd and Madelyn Warriner were named OUA second team all-stars

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“We won OUAs in 2020 as well and we had a couple of returning players from that year, and we also have some really talented players that just came in for their first year. So we were really excited going into it and were pretty confident that we could do well. We put in a lot of work practicing and training off-ice as well throughout the season,” explained Warriner. 

The team training schedule consists of two hours of on-ice training, dry-land training with McMaster’s high-performance centre for athletes and a weekly open league game at the Dundas Valley Golf and Curling Club. Many of the athletes also play on competitive teams outside of McMaster on the weekends. 

Following the OUA Championship, team headed to the U Sports Championships in Sudbury, Ontario which took place between Mar. 15 to Mar. 19. The national championships featured teams from Dalhousie University, the University of Alberta and the University of Prince Edward Island

“It's a bit more of a surprise going into [the U Sports championship] I would say. You're not entirely sure what each specific team is going to bring to the table, but that's kind of what makes it so exciting. You don't really know what to expect and you really just focus on yourself and how you can personally prepare to be the best that you can, so that when you go into it you can perform at your top level,” said Warriner. 

The Marauders played a total of seven games at the U Sports Championships. The final record was four losses and three wins against University of Victoria, University of PEI and Toronto Metropolitan University. It’s worth noting that McMaster was unable to clinch a semi-final spot against Laurentian, despite defeating the home team twice in the OUA Championships.  

“They had been playing very well all week. We had seen it and it was reflected in their record — they were top of the table. So we knew going into it that we had to play really well if we wanted to beat them and they just had the edge on us that day,” explained Warriner.  

“They had been playing very well all week. We had seen it and it was reflected in their record — they were top of the table. So we knew going into it that we had to play really well if we wanted to beat them and they just had the edge on us that day,”

Madelyn Warriner, McMaster Women’s Curling Skip

Ultimately, McMaster finished fifth with University of Alberta taking home the 2023 U Sports championships. However, two McMaster athletes earning All-Canadian honours with Evelyn Robert named to the All-Canadian First Team and Grace Lloyd to the All-Canadian Second Team.  

Looking ahead, Warriner and the McMaster women’s curling team have two key goals. To defend their OUA Championship title and to improve on their U Sports performance next year.

After last year's curling invitational was cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions, McMaster took the opportunity to host the yearly event at Dundas and preformed phenomenally

Although curling is a sport that can mostly be played in the winter months, it’s back in full swing this January. Just last week, McMaster University hosted their first curling invitational in years after last year's event got cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions.  

This year, both the men’s and women’s teams got to experience the type of competition they’d come against in the upcoming OUA’s, each playing five games against other universities.  

“Last year we were meant to play the invitational at Dundas in January, but it unfortunately got cancelled due to lockdowns at that time. This time, we hosted the event to multiple universities, with Mohawk included, and got a lot of playing time where we clashed against five teams,” said Ben Winchester, a second-year men’s curling player.  

Over the two-day period for which the invitational took place, the five games for the men’s team were against Western University, Trent University, York University, Ontario Tech University and University of Toronto. By the end of the weekend, only three games had been accounted for, with the team picking up a win, a draw and a loss.

However, the women’s team had a much more impressive performance, grabbing an impressive four wins and one draw from five games.  

“I would say that the way we played during the invitational provided a lot of competition to other universities that took part. It certainly was a good weekend for us, and it gave us confidence ahead of the Brock invitational that is happening in a few weeks,” said Winchester.  

Although it is his second year with the curling team, Winchester debuted for the OUA curling team this season. His performances from last season certainly proved to be worthy enough to take part in the highest calibre men’s squad for the upcoming games.   

“I am currently in my second year of studies at McMaster, and it’s my second year as a curling team member. However, last year I was a part of the JV squad whereas this year I got the opportunity to partake in the strongest OUA squad that we have,” said Winchester.  

As with almost every other athlete, progress is a very important thing to Winchester. The expectations and improvement for the second-year athlete are an important aspect in his varsity experience.  

“Personally, I expect myself to further improve this season. I think that it should be every athlete's goal to push themselves to the max and achieve the most that they possibly can. As for the rest of the team, I think that we have a lot of potential to do well this season, especially in the upcoming OUA championships,” said Winchester 

Although currently the curling season is at full swing, after the OUA championships the team is expected to go on their off season. Since curling requires very icy conditions in a rink, this is not widely offered during seasons other than winter.  

“During the off season, we tend to go our separate ways. Everyone goes home and tries to get as much practice as possible, although it can be hard. It can be hard to find a place to do curling during hotter seasons,” said Winchester.  

After a successful invitational at home, McMaster men's and women's team are looking to garner more experience at the Brock Invitational, which takes place on Jan 21. and Jan 22. This will be their final preparation before the main event at the OUA championships which are happening on the weekend of Feb 10.  

C/O Caitgreer, Pixabay

Find McMaster’s curling team sweeping their way through the OUA 

McMaster’s varsity curling team has an impressive history. The curling team has not only been part of Marauder Sports for more than 25 years, but the women’s team brought home the OUA championship in the 2019-20 season. 

The curling teams are among McMaster’s smallest varsity teams, with the women’s roster made up of five athletes and the men’s team made up of four. The smaller sizes help foster team spirit as all the members can mesh and work well together, both on and off the ice. Additionally, having fewer players gives each member more opportunity to receive coaching and individual attention to develop their skills.  

Conversely, having so few members can create a couple of issues. Everything from administration to practice times is managed by the curling team presidents and skips, Madelyn Warriner and Daniel Van Veghel. As such, the curling team’s social media is limited to a Facebook page due to a lack manpower dedicated to overseeing it. The sport of curling itself doesn’t garner much attention, but over the past couple of years, McMaster’s athletics and recreation department has aided in increasing their media exposure by conducting interviews and writing articles.  

“Compared to other sports the numbers are still small, yes, [but] we can really see a growth which is exciting for us as a program,” said Van Veghel. 

The women’s curling Ontario University Athletics season occurred on the weekend of Feb. 26 and the men’s OUAs occurred nearly a month later, on the weekend of March 19. While neither team brought home the championship, both are proud of the work they put in and how they played.  

“We were probably one of the first sports, at least on the women's side, to have our OUAs following the return to competition. Normally we'd be ramping up our training right before, but we didn't really have that opportunity this year. But given that I'm still very proud of how we did. I think we really left it all out there,” said Warriner. 

“We were probably one of the first sports, at least on the women's side, to have our OUAs following the return to competition. Normally we'd be ramping up our training right before, but we didn't really have that opportunity this year. But given that I'm still very proud of how we did. I think we really left it all out there."

Madelyn Warriner, Curling Team President

Curling is a unique sport in that it prioritizes precision and accuracy over power. It requires players to plan their plays many moves in advance and adapt not only to their opponents’ moves, but also their own. 

“You’re playing against yourself. You're making your own shots. You're focusing on what you can control rather than what the other team is doing . . . You have no direct effect on how the other team performed, which is very unique to curling,” explained Warriner.  

“You’re playing against yourself. You're making your own shots. You're focusing on what you can control rather than what the other team is doing . . . You have no direct effect on how the other team performed, which is very unique to curling."

Madelyn Warriner, Curling Team President

Focusing on one’s own moves is a common sentiment in curling but keeping spirits high helps as well.  

“Sometimes the other team just plays better and there's lots of times at the end of it you go, ‘Wow, we were awesome. The score doesn't show it, but we played very well,’” said Van Veghel.  

The 2021-2022 curling season may be over, but this team is excitedly looking toward the next and is ready to repeat the previous season’s win.  

Scott Hastie

Assistant Sports Editor

Over the past week, the McMaster Marauders curling team took a trip to Thompson Rivers University to compete against the best colleges and universities in the nation. After finishing with a silver medal at the OUA championships, McMaster qualified for the CIS/CCAA tournament and put together a respectable result.

Despite the curling team being in their sophomore season of competition, Mac finished 3-4 in national pool play – good enough for the fourth overall finish and highest result from an OUA team.

In their first match, Mac took on the silver medalist Alberta Pandas and narrowly lost with a 9-8 score. The young bunch rebounded quickly, though, defeating the host Thompson Rivers WolfPack in a 6-1 rout.

The Maroon and Grey’s third game saw the see-saw trend begin, as Mac ran into the gold-medal Manitoba Bisons. The CIS/CCAA champions bested Mac in a heated battle, with the Bisons winning 10-8 in the tenth end.

Similar to the previous day of competition, the Marauders handled their next opponent of the day. The University of Prince Edward Island Panthers dug themselves a 6-1 hole before storming back. Mac weathered the comeback attempt and ended Day Two of the tournament with a 7-6 victory.

Day Three saw the highlight of the young program as the Marauders defeated the OUA champion Western Mustangs. It only took McMaster seven ends to dethrone their rivals and earn revenge from the OUA championship loss from a few weeks prior. With one game left, Mac stood with a 3-2 record.

However, the Marauders would find themselves on the wrong side of revenge in their match against the Guelph Gryphons. Mac handled the Gryphons in the OUA semifinals, but the Gryphons had the last laugh after taking a quick start in the national game to send the Marauders back to a .500 mark.

The tournament came to a bitter close as the Saint Mary’s Huskies beat the Maroon and Grey in a one point nail-biter. It took ten ends, but the AUS representative proved victorious.

Although McMaster narrowly missed out on grabbing some hardware for the trophy case in the David Braley Athletic Centre, the sky is the limit for Mac’s curling team.

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