The Carleton Ravens women’s curling team will have a new skip when they represent Canada at the 2015 Winter Universiade from Feb. 4-14 in Granada, Spain.
The team earned the opportunity to play for Canada at the games when they won the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS)/Canadian Curling Association (CCA) women’s curling championships in March.
While the team was in the midst of preparing for the tournament over the summer, Ravens skip Jamie Sinclair was offered a spot on the US High Performance team. She accepted the opportunity and is now ineligible to compete for Canada on the world stage.
The Ravens have found a replacement for Sinclair in Breanne Meakin, a University of Manitoba student and 2013 CIS champion. Meakin was also an alternate for Team Canada at the 2013 Winter Universiade in Trentino, Italy.
“We were looking for someone who would be able to come in as a skip and also someone who has played at this top world level before,” Ravens second Lynn Kreviazuk said. “She has really high performance and world level experience that will be really beneficial to our team.”
Meakin said she feels extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to return to the Universiade.
“I was immediately very excited when I was asked to play,” said Meakin, who is in her final year of studying nutritional science. “Being to the Universaide prior to this one, I knew how big of an experience it is.”
The Winter Universiade is held every two years and is organized by the Fédération International du Sport Universitaire (FISU). The event brings together student athletes from over 50 countries to compete in the largest multi-sport event for university students every two years, according to the FISU webite.
Meakin will be traveling to Ottawa on select weekends to practice with the team and compete in tournaments to prepare for the Universiade.
Although she has not had a chance to practice with the team yet, Meakin said they have already developed chemistry off of the ice by Skyping one another.
“It’s good that we share so much in common being university students,” she said. “It’s going to be an easy transition for us because we all get along really well and we bring out the best each other.”
Third Lauren Horton, lead Jessica Armstong, and Kreviazuk will continue to play in an Ottawa-based leauge during the season while Meakin will practice in Winnipeg.
The journey to the Winter Universiade has not been easy for the Ravens. The team was initially unsure if they could go to the tournament due to the high travel expenses.
“It’s exciting now that everything is starting to piece together,” said Kreviazuk. “There’s definitely certain obstacles we’ve had to overcome, but we’re a really strong unit so we are really good at coming together.”
The team is seeking funding and will be holding a dinner and silent auction at the Hunt Club Golf and Curling Club on Nov. 1.
