Top seeds still unbeaten at Manitoba men’s curling playdowns

All of the apical seeds are inactive undefeated to commencement the Viterra Championship successful Portage la Prairie for the Manitoba men’s curling title.

The archetypal 2 days of the bonspiel went beauteous overmuch according to program arsenic the apical 5 seeds each won again connected Thursday to beforehand to A-Event playoff qualifying games.

Top effect and defending champion Reid Carruthers (Granite) had an casual clip against Kelly Marnoch (Carberry) with an 8-1 victory. Second effect Jordon McDonald (Assiniboine Memorial) had a brace of three-enders arsenic they won their 2nd consecutive crippled 9-3 implicit Daniel Birchard (Pembina). Third effect and past years finalist Braden Calvert (Fort Rouge) picked up an 8-2 triumph implicit Cale Dunbar (Brandon). Fourth effect Jacques Gauthier (West St. Paul) stole deuces successful back-to-back ends successful a 13-9 triumph against Justin Richter (Beausejour). And 5th effect Brett Walter (Assiniboine Memorial) had a one-sided 10-3 triumph implicit Jace Freeman (Virden).

All 5 seeded teams person precocious to A-Side qualifying games arsenic they effort and nail down 1 of the 8 disposable spots successful the playoff round.

The archetypal 4 playoff qualifiers volition beryllium determined successful the 8:30 a.m. gully connected Friday. Carruthers volition look Jeff Stewart (Gladstone) for a playoff spot, portion McDonald is matched against Steve Irwin (Brandon), Calvert takes connected Sean Grassie (Deer Lodge), and it’ll beryllium Gauthier versus Walter successful the different matchup.

By the extremity of Thursday’s play, the archetypal 32-team tract volition beryllium chopped successful fractional with a double-knockout format. Dunbar, Stefan Gudmundson (Steinbach), Mike Mahon (Granite), Jeremy Sundell (Holland), Sean Boyle (Neepawa), Dean Dunstone (Granite), and Greg Todoruk (Dauphin) were each eliminated connected Thursday with a 2nd defeat.

The 4 teams inactive lasting astatine the extremity of the playoff circular beforehand to the title round. The last is scheduled for 3 p.m. connected Sunday astatine Stride Place.