Kamloops-based team skipped by Cody Tanaka celebrates victory Sunday after winning the final of the BC Men's Curling Championships in Esquimalt/via CurlBC
The strength of the Kamloops curling scene was on display this weekend at the Provincial playdowns to represent British Columbia at the Men’s and Women’s national championships.
Cody Tanaka’s Rink — with Jared Kolomaya at 3rd, Mitchell Kopytko at the 2nd position and Coburn Fadden throwing first stones — would prevail in Sunday’s final in Esquimalt, downing the Victoria-based squad skipped by Jason Montgomery.
The victory would not come easy for the Tanaka Rink, which is based out of the Tunnel Town Curling Club in Richmond, but also considers Kamloops home-base as well.
After falling to Montgomery in the first round of the double knock-out playoff format, the Tanaka Rink would have to hold off the Krell Rink out of Langley 6-5 in the semi-finals to earn another match up with Montgomery.
After going down 2-0 after the 3rd end, the Tanaka Rink would rally for a deuce in the 5th to tie things at two.
After forcing Montgomery Rink into a single in the 6th, Tanaka would take the lead in the 8th with a pair to make it 4-3.
However, the Montgomery Rink — sitting #74 in the World Curling Rankings — would respond with a deuce of their own in the 9th to put the Kamloops rink down 5-4 heading into the final end.
Team Tanaka 3rd Jared Kolomaya holds the broom for Cody Tanaka in the final stone of the 10th end at the BC Men’s Curling Championships in Esquimalt/via CurlBC
But after a missed hit-and-roll on Montgomery’s final stone, Tanaka was left with a straight-on double-takeout, which he would make to earn the 6-5 victory.
Ranked #119 in the world headed into the competition, the Tanaka Rink will now represent BC at the Brier, which gets going February 27th in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Brown Rink falls to home-town favorites
While the Tanaka Rink has secured its place in the National Men’s Championships, the Corryn Brown Rink out of Kamloops wasn’t as fortunate.
Despite going 6-1 in the round robin, and earning a direct bye into the final, the Brown rink would run up against the one team which took them out in the preliminary stages — falling to Victoria’s Taylor Reese-Hanson 9-5 in the final.
The Brown rink, which has struggled recently at the Olympic qualifiers in Halifax, is unlikely to make it through the back door to this year’s Scotties in Mississauga, Ontario.
While not yet confirmed, its expected the final wild-card slot based on the CTRS (Canadian Team Ranking System) standings will go to the Kaitlyn Lawes Rink, after they failed to earn their provincial title on Sunday in the Manitoba final.
The only outstanding question is whether Curling Canada will allow three Manitoba-based rinks into the Scotties, as Kerri Einerson’s squad takes over Rachel Homan’s slot as Team Canada in Mississauga, as Homan will be busy at the time representing Canada at the Olympics.
Beth Peterson’s Assiniboine Rink will represent Manitoba after defeating Lawes 9-7 in Sunday’s Manitoba’s provincials.
Lawes Rink finished 5th in the CTRS standings for the 2024/25 season, while Brown’s Rink finished behind them in 6th.
