It’s been an exciting last few months for Robyn Silvernagle’s rink from North Battleford.
The team, which includes Prince Albert’s Kara Thevenot at lead, captured the Saskatchewan provincial women’s curling title in January, finished in third place at the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in February and have had the chance to take part in three Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling events.
“It’s been a total whirlwind at times but we’ve enjoyed every second of the ride,” Silvernagle said Thursday night after her rink improved to 2-1 at the Humpty’s Champions Cup in Saskatoon. “We’re really appreciative of how great our season has been and just how far we’ve come as a team.”
“All of the hard work that our team has put in has paid off this season,” Thevenot added. “As the wins keep coming you are just focused on making shots and you end up being not as worried about who it is that you are facing.”
The rink, which also includes Stefanie Lawton at third and Jessie Hunkin at second, are now ranked eighth in the World Curling Tour’s rankings thanks to their strong performances.
Having reached the quarter-final round at the Meridian Canadian Open in North Battleford in January, they achieved their best finish at a Slam to date two weeks ago as they made it to the semifinals at the Players’ Championship in Toronto.
“We took a little bit of time off to rest after the Scotties, but we were able to get a few practices in along the way,” Thevenot said. “Robyn and I also got a chance to play at the Mixed Provincials in Estevan at the end of March (with Tyler Hartung and Jayden Shwaga) and we went on a pretty good run there.”
“We ended up losing in the finals (to Shaun Meachem’s rink from Swift Current) but it was still a great week for us,” Silvernagle added. “I think that time off after the Scotties helped us out quite a bit. Sometimes a nice break allows you to clear your mind a bit and we’ve been able to pick up right where we left off.”
After this weekend’s event, which concludes Sunday at Merlis Belsher Place, the rink will be having a meeting to determine their plans for the 2019-20 season.
“It’s been an exciting but long eight months, so we’re excited to have the summer off and get a chance to be with our families,” Thevenot said.
“We’ll still be training as much as we can and after our team meeting this weekend we’ll have a good idea of what our plans are as we get ready for September.”
