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Lepines duplicate Trail success at BC senior curling championship

Craig and Karin Lepine members of BC senior men’s and women’s championship curling teams
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Karen and Craig Lepine duplicated their gold medal result in Trail in 2013, by winning their respective women’s and men’s 2018 senior provincial curling championships in Enderby and Duncan on Sunday.

Repeat winners ruled the week at the 2018 BC Senior Men’s and Women’s Curling Championships.

It’s been five years since Langley couple Craig and Karin Lepine won the men’s and women’s provincial curling championship in Trail, but the couple did it again in 2018.

In senior men’s play, Craig Lepine’s crew - which represents Cloverdale, Langley, Penticton and Vancouver and features Stan Walker, Craig McLeod and Mike Pelech - repeated a 2017 victory by defeating Wes Craig at his home club in Duncan by a 7-5 score.

Craig and his team of Gerald Poelman, Tony Anslow and Victor Gamble had gone through the round-robin with an 8-1 record, including a 5-4 victory over Lepine, who avenged the loss in the championship game, thanks to a four-ender in the seventh.

Lepine was 7-2 during the round-robin portion of the event, his other loss coming in a 4-3 setback to Mark Longworth of Vernon.

The Castlegar-Trail rink skipped by Myron Nichol with third Bill van Yzerloo, second Garry Beaudry, and lead Richard Faunt finished tied for seventh spot with a 3-6 record, but gave the Lepine rink all it could handle in a 6-5 loss in Draw 5 of the round robin.

The Duncan event boasted the 10 top teams in B.C. age-50 and over competing for a trip to the Canadian championships, while the women’s event was held in Enderby this year.

Karin Lepine joined the Lynne Noble foursome this time around. Noble added to her 2011 and 2017 provincial crowns as her team of Penny Shantz, Colleen Robson and Lepine – representing the Cloverdale, Comox, Langley, Parksville and Qualicum curling clubs – went through the event undefeated at the Enderby Curling Club.

Noble – whose team is coached by seven-time BC men’s champion Jim Cotter - went through the round-robin with a perfect 7-0 mark before defeating Shiella Cowan of Royal City/Cloverdale 8-5 in the championship final, boosted by a five-ender in the fourth. Cowan’s rink included Donna Langlands, Crystal Murray and Victoria Murphy.

The winning rink featured a strong lineup with Lepine now becoming a three-time BC senior’s champion. Shantz helped Canada win a gold medal at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, when curling made its Games debut as a demonstration sport. This was Robson’s second-straight seniors’ victory and Lepine is the 2015 national masters champion.

Both the Noble and Lepine rinks will now travel to the 2018 Everest Canadian Senior Men’s and Women’s Curling Championships in Stratford, Ont., slated for Mar. 24-29 for the 50+ age group.



Jim Bailey

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