Smith College

Mar. 30, 2009 - Regina Leader-Post
 
Chris Busby and his University of Regina team are the Canadian university curling men's champions.
 
Busby, Jason Obst, Justin Mihalicz and Brad Wallin won Sunday’s final at the Montreal-based CIS/Canadian Curling Association championship with a 9-8 win over Saint Mary’s, skipped by Kendal Thompson. It is the first time that a U of R team has won a championship in men’s or women’s play.
 
The U of R foursome actually fell behind 3-2 after Thompson counted a trio of stones in the fourth end, but Busby came back with three of his own in the fifth.
 
After Saint Mary’s was held to a single in the sixth, Regina scored another three in the seventh and stole one in the eighth to all but seal the victory. Saint Mary’s scored two in the ninth and stole two in the 10th, but it was not enough.
 
Busby curled 88 per cent in the final compared to just 54 by Thompson. Busby was named an All-Canadian.
 
The U of R went 7-0 en route to the championship, winning its games by an average of 4.7 points and having to play a full 10 ends only twice, including Sunday’s final.
 
Busby’s team – which also includes alternate Brent Rodgers and coach Wayne Obst – will now represent Canada at the 2010 Karuizawa Invitational in Japan next February. Normally the CIS/CCA champions represent Canada at the Winter Universiade, but that event is held every two years and won’t come around again until 2011.
 
Canada has had good success at the Karuizawa since its inception in 1999, producing three women’s champions and four men’s champions including Saskatchewan’s Pat Simmons and Joel Jordison.
 
The U of R women’s team, skipped by Penny Roy, saw its tournament come to an end with a 6-3 loss to Saint Mary’s on Saturday in the final game of the round robin. The Regina foursome needed a win in that game to even have a shot at making a tiebreaker.
 
For the week, Roy, third Larissa Murray, second Kristen Mitchell, and lead Megan Selzer finished 1-4.