Victoria curling rinks returned to the provincial capital with North Okanagan cash.
Mahra Harris and Jason Montgomery won the women's and men's divisions, respectively, at the annual Prestige Hotels and Resorts Curling Classic, held Oct. 3-5 at the Vernon Curling Club.
Harris – daughter of Olympic silver medallist and TV curling commentator Mike Harris – defeated Sarah Wark of Abbotsford 6-1 in the women's championship Sunday.
The Island squad, which includes third Meredith Cole, second Sasha Wilson, and lead Liz Bowles, stole five of the six points in the final, with the teams shaking hands after six ends. All matches were slated for eight ends.
The victory was worth $3,500 for the Harris rink, which is taking part in the inaugural Junior Grand Slam of Curling event starting Oct. 16 in Beaumont, Alta.
Wark collected $2,500 for reaching the final. The Abby rink defeated Harris 8-1 in the preliminary round.
Harris advanced to the championship with a 7-5 semifinal win over previously unbeaten Shiella Cowan of New Westminster. It was the Cowan quartet's only loss in Vernon.
Wark reached the final with an 8-6 final four win over Kayla Wilson of Kamloops. Wilson and Cowan pocketed $1,500 each.
The Vernon foursome skipped by Kayla Powell, with Falon Chretien at third, Alyssa Kyllo at second, and Jaelyn Cotter at lead, narrowly missed the playoffs, going 2-2.
Powell defeated Harris 6-3, then lost 8-3 to Cowan and 5-3 to Wilson, before finishing the Classic with an 11-1 decision over Elyssa Bingham of New Westminster.
The Kelowna team of sisters Megan (skip) and Parker (third) Rempel, and the front end of second Gwyneth Jones and lead Ella Walker went 0-4.
Eight teams took part in the women's field.
Montgomery needed seven ends to capture the 15-team men's event, finishing the tournament with a 7-2 romp over reigning B.C. men's champion Cameron de Jong, also of Victoria.
Holding a 3-2 lead at the fourth-end break, Montgomery stole deuces in five and six, and the seventh end was blanked, leading to handshakes from de Jong.
The win was worth $5,500 for Montgomery who was backed by third Chris Baier, second Miles Craig, and lead Troy Cowan.
The de Jong quartet won $4,500. de Jong reached the playoffs in 2024, but was eliminated in the quarterfinals by eventual champion Xiao Ming Xu of China.
Montgomery, who was 6-0 overall in Vernon, had a bye into the semifinal, as did de Jong. Montgomery knocked off Wouter Gosgens of the Netherlands 9-5, while de Jong edged Richard Krell of Langley 5-4 in the other semi. Gosgens and Krell pocketed $3,000 each.
Six teams qualified for the playoffs. Gosgens defeated Penticton's Matt Tolley 10-5 in the first quarterfinal, scoring four in the seventh end to force handshakes. Krell picked up a deuce in the eighth and final end with hammer to edge Evan van Amerstam of Edmonton, a 2024 playoff rink, 5-4. The van Amsterdam and Tolley rinks won $2,500.
Tolley, who finished 2-2 overall in Vernon, was supported by third Darin Gerow, second Jesse Monette, and lead Cam Weir.
Vernon's Rob Nobert went 1-3 and finished out of the playoffs. Nobert lost 7-1 to Jay Wakefield of Vancouver, 7-2 to Krell, and 7-4 to van Amsterdam, but scored a 5-4 win over Alex Duncan-Wu of Victoria.
Nobert's team included Kelly McQuiggan at third, Nolan Blaeser at second, and Greg Poggemoeller at lead.
