Cougars Bring Home the Hardware at OCAA Curling Championships
Over the past week, the Sault College Cougars curling team was in Hamilton competing in the 2025 OCAA Provincial Curling Championships. The Cougars sent three teams to the championship, a men’s team and a pair of Mixed Doubles teams.
Men’s Curling
Sault College Cougars Men’s Curling, consisting of, Ben Appleton, Evan Bowman, Justin Mackay, Evan Robert, and Jake Clouthier, started the championship with a matchup against Fleming College. The Cougars exchanged singles before taking over the game, scoring 5 and stealing 3 before cruising to a 9-1 opening draw victory. Game 2 saw Humber and Sault College clash, with Humber striking first, and Sault responding with a pair. The Hawks would shut out the Cougars after the second end, defeating them 7-2. Game 3 would be the biggest test for the Cougars with 3-time defending champion Mohawk College. Mohawk would take 2 in the opening end before stealing 5 in the second end, defeating the Cougars 8-1, dropping their record to 1-2. Sault College finished off the round-robin strong winning their final four games against Fanshawe College (11-1), Durham College (7-1), Niagara College (8-4), and Confederation College (9-0) to set up a rematch int eh semifinals with Mohawk. The seminal would see the Mountaineers play sharp defensive curling, stealing single points throughout the match and defeating the Cougars 6-0. The Cougars would be destined for the bronze medal game with Fanshawe College. In the bronze medal game, the Cougars defeated the Falcons 8-3, earning their third consecutive bronze in the men's division. Sault jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first end. The Falcons responded with two points in the second, but the Cougars dominated from that point onward, adding two in the third, one in the fourth, and two in the fifth. Fanshawe scored one in the sixth but conceded to the Cougars shortly after.
The Cougars will now shift their focus to Nationals in Lethbridge, AB from February 24-28th.
Mixed Doubles
Sault-1
In the Mixed Doubles bracket, Sault College sent reigning OCAA Champions Brooke Nicholson and new partner Evan Bowman to represent Sault-1 and they picked up right where Nicholson left off in 2024. In their opening match, Sault-1 and Niagara-1 squared off in a back-and-forth affair which saw Sault-1 escape with a 7-6 win. Sault-1 would cruise through their next 2 draws defeating Fanshawe (7-0) and Durham (11-6) setting up a big draw with Sault-2 for the top of round-robin standings. Sault-2 would jump out early taking single points in the opening two ends, before Sault-1 added a single, stole a pair, and then stole another single. Sault-1 would ultimately win 6-5, to remain atop the group standings. Sault-1 would cruise through the remainder of the round-robin to finish undefeated heading into the semifinals. A semifinal against Niagara-1 would see the Cougars fall behind 1-0 in the first end before responding with 5 in the second. The teams would exchange a pair of points over the next two ends as Sault-1 cruised to a 10-3 victory and a spot in the finals.
Sault-2
Sault-2 started their championship with a matchup against Niagara-2, and showed from the get-go, that the duo of Connor Simms and Ava Engel (Jenna Divincenzo – spare) were there to take home some hardware. Sault-2 scored a single in the first end, stole 2 in the second, and cruised to a 12-4 win. Sault-2 turned their focus to Mohawk for game 2. The tight matchup saw both teams exchange points through the opening four ends, and Sault-2 stealing a pair in the fifth end. That would be enough as Sault-2 escaped with a 6-5 victory. Sault-2 would defeat Humber 11-4, setting up their pivotal match with Sault-1. After falling to Sault-1, Sault-2 would close out the round-robin with 3 straight victories to secure second place. Sault-2 would go up against Mohawk in the semifinal and Sault-2 would score 2 in the first end, and 3 in the third to take a 5-1 lead early. Mohawk would score 4 in the fourth end to tie things up, but Sault-2 would respond with 2 points in the fifth as they went on to win 10-6, setting up an all-Sault College final.
In the Mixed Doubles final, Sault-1 would score a single in the first end to take an early lead. Sault-2 would respond with a huge second end scoring 5 and stealing a single in the third end to take control of the match. Sault-2 would respond with 3 points in the fourth end, but Sault-2 was equal to the task, answering with 3 points of their own to secure an 11-7 victory and the OCAA Gold medal!
Congratulations to all Sault College Cougars as the only school to have all teams medal at the OCAA Championships!