New Bothwell’s Cameron nabs Scotties wildcard
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This article was published 02/02/2024 (792 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Kate Cameron’s rink may have been felled in the Manitoba Scotties semi-final, but the New Bothwell curler will still be competing for a national championship.
The Cameron rink managed to pick up the third wildcard spot at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts after the weekend’s results came in from across the country.
The wildcard teams were picked based on the Canadian Team Rankings System (CRTS), with Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones and Ottawa’s Rachel Homan pre-qualifying before provincial action even began alongside last year’s champion, Gimli’s Kerri Einarson.
After the dust had settled from provincial qualifiers, only one team was set to join the 18-team Scotties field, but after Nunavut withdrew from the championship, Curling Canada announced a fourth wildcard team would make up the numbers.
Cameron would have still qualified without the withdrawal, ranking one slot ahead of fellow wildcard Corryn Brown (British Columbia). Cameron needed help to clinch after losing Sunday morning’s semi-final, but a huge assist came from the Manitoba final later in the day.
After losing to Beth Peterson in the semi-finals, Cameron’s team was rooting for Kaitlyn Lawes, ranked fourth in the CTRS to pick up the Manitoba slot over 14th-ranked Peterson.
Cameron finished the season as the seventh-ranked team in the country, helped by a perfect 5-0 round robin at the Manitoba playdowns.
It’s Cameron’s first season skipping a team since 2014. She’s appeared at the Scotties a combined seven times, including a 2017 second-place finish while playing for a team skipped by Michelle Englot.
In 2019, she joined team Laura Walker, representing Alberta at the national championship as a third from 2020-2023.
Peterson needed to win Manitoba to have any chance at qualifying for the Scotties, but was held to a single in the tenth end after a Lawes double-takeout scored two in the ninth.
Between Jones, Einarson, Cameron, and provincial champion Lawes, four teams from Manitoba will be competing at the Scotties this year.
Team Cameron will have a new look in Calgary when the nationals kick off Feb. 16, as former world junior champion and team alternate, Altona’s Mackenzie Zacharias, won’t be able to come to the tournament. The team’s second, Taylor McDonald, is seven-and-a-half months pregnant and also won’t be able to make the trip.
The team made a quick decision to find her replacement, picking up Kelsey Rocque to fill in. Rocque played third this season for Peterson’s rink.