Martin, Kleiter win Sask. provincial curling crowns

Saskatchewan now knows who will wear the green jackets at this year’s national curling championships.

Nancy Martin and her rink defeated Jolene Campbell 9-7 to win the 2025 Viterra Prairie Pinnacle Women’s Championship in Kindersley. Later that day in the same rink, Rylan Kleiter and his team defeated Steve Laycock in the finals at the Sasktel Tankard by a score 8-5.

It was a redemption year for both rinks as they each came up short in the finals in 2024.

Martin finally breaks through as skip

Martin and her Saskatoon-based rink consisting of third Chaelynn Kitz, second Kadriana Lott, and lead Deanna Doig will head to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts — the women’s Canadian national championships.

The Martin rink finished round-robin play with a 6-2 record but lost 9-2 to the Campbell rink in the one-two playoff.

Martin knocked off the Ashley Thevenot rink 15-8 in the semifinals, setting up a rematch with Campbell.

Martin and her rink scored two points in the first end, one in the third and one in the fourth to take an early lead in the game.

But the opponents — Campbell at skip, Rachel Erickson at third, second Abby Ackland and lead Dayna Demmans, battled back with three in the fifth.

the teams traded singles over the next two ends before Martin got a deuce in the eighth.

But Campbell put up three in the ninth to tie things at seven.

Martin was sitting three in the final end but Campbell’s draw came up short, leaving Martin’s stone as the counter and with the hammer, did not throw her final stone as the team claimed victory.

This will be her second appearance at a Scotties — first as skip

Martin had been a part of the Sherry Anderson rink in 2021 that qualified for the tournament due to their points as the 2021 Saskatchewan Scotties was cancelled due to COVID-19 and defending champion Robyn Silvernagle’s rink did not retain enough team members. They went 6-6 and finished sixth at that event.

The 51-year-old from Rosetown started to skip her own team in 2023 and has made the finals every year but always came up short, losing the 2023 final 8-4 to Silvernagle and then a 2024 10-9 loss to Skylar Ackerman’s rink.

The Scotties take place in Thunder Bay, Ont. from Feb. 14-23.

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Kleiter reaches the brier for the first time

Kleiter’s rink consists of third Joshua Mattern, second Matthew Hall and lead Matthew Hall and will represent Saskatchewan at the national level. Kleiter, 26, will skip at this year’s Montana’s Brier for the first time. It’s the Men’s Canadian national title tournament.

While this is the first time his rink will be at the national men’s tournament,t they have succeeded in the junior ranks, winning the 2019 World Junior Championships. The only change to his rink from the junior ranks came in 2023-24 when Hall came in and moved Johnson to lead as Matthieu Taillon left the team.

Kleiter’s rink came into the tournament as one of the favourites after losing 7-3 to Mike McEwen’s rink last year in the finals. McEwen and his team didn’t participate in the SaskTel tankard as they had already qualified for the Brier due to the points they accumulated during their season.

Kleiter and his rink finished the round-robin at 5-3, which was good for third.

Kleiter and his rink knocked off Kelly Knapp’s 8-6 in the three-four playoff. Knapp’s rink had won the 2023 SaskTel Tankard.

Then in the semifinals, Kleiter’s team handled business against Dustin Kalthoff’s rink 7-5 to advance to play against Steve Laycock’s rink.

Laycock’s rink also consisted of third Shaun Meachem, second Chris Haichert, and lead Brayden Grindheim. They had finished at the top of the standings at the end of the round-robin portion with a 7-1 record.

Laycock has been to 10 Brier’s previously.

Kleiter’s rink scored three in the third and fifth ends and added a deuce in the seventh as well.

While Laycock’s rink scored one in the first, they were playing catchup for most of the game.

They could only muster singles in the fourth, sixth, eighth, and ninth ends before eventually running out of rocks in the 10th.

The Brier will happen from Feb. 28 to March 9 in Kelowna, B.C.