By Nathan Kanter

Final provincial curling berths handed out

Jan 23, 2017 | 11:00 AM

With Northern and Southern Qualifiers held this past weekend, all 16 spots have now been granted for the upcoming 2017 SaskTel Tankard men’s provincial in Tisdale from Feb. 1-5.

Ten teams had already qualified through various bonspiels, a players’ championship, a points champion, and the four highest ranked teams, according to the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS). Among those 10 are Team Laycock, Team Korte, and Team Meachem.

Joining those 10 will be Drew Heidt’s North Battleford rink, who didn’t drop a game at the Northern Qualifier at the Twin Rivers Curling Club this past weekend, Saskatoon’s Team Bitz, Saskatoon’s Brady Scharback, Lashburn’s Team Armstrong, Regina’s Team Ackerman, and Estevan’s Team Gedak.

Heidt, Bitz, Scharback, and Armstrong are the four qualifiers from the north, while Gedak and Ackerman are the southern qualifiers. Heidt and Gedak went through their respective ‘A’ brackets, Scharback and Ackerman went through the ‘B’, and Bitz and Armstrong went through the ‘C.’

On Monday morning, the women’s provincial bracket was also finalized, as the Viterra Scotties Tournament of Hearts takes place this upcoming week in Melville.

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The tournament features nine teams that play a round robin within their pool and then the top four teams advance to a page playoff system.

North Battleford’s Robyn Silvernagle snagged one of the first four berths, qualifying way back at the end of November. She is the skip on Team Silvernagle along with women from three different Saskatchewan cities: Dayna Demers from Meadow Lake, Christina Goertzen from Saskatoon, and Kara Thevenot from Prince Albert.

Silvernagle said at the time that it was nice to book their spot well ahead of schedule.

“Knowing that we already have a spot is awesome,” Silvernagle said in an interview on Nov. 30. “It’s something that we strive for — it’s kind of our focus the whole year and what we’re working up towards. We’re really excited to be playing in [the provincials].”

The eight other women’s teams that will compete at the women’s provincial are Regina’s Team Eberle, Saskatoon’s Team Anderson, Biggar’s Team Barber, Saskatoon’s Team Lawton, Saskatoon’s Team Martin, Moose Jaw’s Team Barker, Kronau’s Team Schneider, and Balgonie’s Team Selzer.

The tournament kicks off on Tuesday, Jan. 24 with four draws, including Team Silvernagle facing off against Team Anderson.

The playoffs don’t begin until Saturday.

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11