Trojans make return to the ACAC

LLOYDMINSTER, ALTA., (Dec. 1, 2019) - For the first time in over a decade, the SAIT Trojans competed in an Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) curling event.

The Trojans sent a men's team and a mixed team to Lloydminster, Alta., to take part in the three-day Fall Regional, hosted by Lakeland College. The men's team finished 3-3, while the mixed team recorded an 0-5 mark.

The Trojans had not competed in the ACAC since the 2006-07 season. 

While going .500 may not have been exactly what the men's team would have wanted, they had the rare distinction of playing with only three team members as their third, Riley Helston, could not make the trip.

That left skip Andrew Manson, along with Ben Helston and Miki Becker to do all the heavy lifting.

"Everybody just has to step it up a notch and pick up the extra slack that the fourth person would carry," said Manson. "Because of it, there's extra sweeping and extra throwing we have to do. By the end of it, we were starting to get pretty tired."

That did not stop them from getting off to a good start, winning their first game Friday night 7-4 over Red Deer College.

Saturday morning, the team moved to 2-0 with a 5-2 victory over the defending Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) National Champions from Lakeland College.

From there, they dropped three in a row - 8-4 to MacEwan University, 5-4 to NAIT and 9-5 to Lakeland College - before winning their final game on Sunday 5-4 over Olds College.

"There's lots of good teams out here, and we were really close in all the games we lost. We weren't too upset with any of them," Manson stated. "We're pretty happy with how we played and are sitting in a good spot to qualify for the Conference Championships right now."

Sarah McKinnon skipped the mixed team over the course of the weekend. 

They started out Friday night with a narrow 8-7 loss to NAIT. On Saturday, they played three games, losing 9-3 to Red Deer College, 9-4 to Lakeland College and 12-4 to MacEwan University.

In Sunday's final contest, the Trojans were beaten 7-3 by the University of Alberta-Augustana.

Next up for the Trojans is the Winter Regional, which will be hosted in Edmonton by NAIT, Jan. 24-26.