Cotter’s Okanagan Team Wins BC Title

UPDATE

Jim Cotter’s Okanagan team beat Jason Montgomery of Victoria to win the BC men’s curling championship in Quesnel, the 8th BC title for Cotter and his teammate Rick Sawatsky.

The Vernon-Kelowna team will represent BC at the Tim Hortons Brier starting March 2 in Brandon.

Sara Wark of Abbotsford won the women’s title over Corryn Brown of Kamloops.

Here is the news release from the event:

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Jim Cotter further ingrained his name into BC curling history on Sunday morning at the West Fraser Centre in Quesnel as he led his team to a win in the final of the 2019 BC Men’s Curling Championship, presented by Barkerville Historic Town & Park and Nufloors.

Representing Vernon and Kelowna Curling Clubs, Cotter, along with third Steve Laycock, second Tyrel Griffith, lead Rick Sawatsky and fifth Brad Wood were named the 2019 BC Men’s Champions after a 9-4
victory over Victoria Curling Club’s Team Montgomery.

Team Cotter went undefeated all event, winning the A event final 7-5 against Jason Montgomery’s team of third Cameron de Jong, second Miles Craig and lead Will Duggan to progress straight to the playoffs. They then faced Team Montgomery again in the 1-2 page playoff game, once again coming away with the win (this time with a score of 9-3) to secure their spot in the final.

“Team Montgomery, they’re a fabulous team,” said Cotter. “We knew they’d be coming on full force.”

This 2019 victory marks the eighth BC Men’s Championship title for Cotter and Sawatsky and the sixth for Griffith. While Laycock has represented Saskatchewan numerous times at the Tim Hortons Brier,
this is the first time that he has won the BC Championship.

“Probably our strongest thing is our team bond, it’s just remarkable,” said Cotter. “We’re really close on and off the ice and I think that that’s what brings success.”

Team Cotter will represent BC at the 2019 Tim Hortons Brier in Brandon, Manitoba from March 2 to 10.

“It never gets old, it feels great,” said Cotter of returning to the Brier. “The guys played fabulous all week, and I couldn’t be happier right now.”

Vernon and Kelowna’s Team Cotter secured their spot in the final in the men’s 1-2 page playoff game, making 2019 the sixth year in a row that skip Jim Cotter, second Tyrel Griffith and lead Rick Sawatsky have made an appearance in the BC Men’s final.

This year they are joined by Steve Laycock at third and will be looking to get their fifth win in six years. To get to this game, Team Cotter beat Victoria’s team of Jason Montgomery, Cameron de Jong, Miles Craig and Will Duggan by a score of 9-3.

The final of the 2019 BC Men’s Curling Championship, presented by Barkerville Historic Town & Park and Nufloors, is on now and feature Team Cotter versus Team Montgomery.

The final of the 2019 Scotties BC Women’s Curling Championship, presented by Best Western and Nufloors, will take place today at 2:00pm PT and feature Team Wark versus Team Brown.

Both finals will be broadcast on Shaw Spotlight and live streamed on cbcsports.ca.

Ronan O’Doherty photo