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Wes Craig and his Naniamo/Kerry Park rink have a provincial title to their name, and now they’re taking aim at a national championship.

Craig, third Steve Waatainen, second Craig Burton and lead Keith Clarke won the sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ senior men’s curling championship recently in Trail and now they’ll represent the province at the Canadian senior men’s championship event March 22-28 in Chilliwack.

At the provincial bonspiel, Craig went 5-2 in the round robin to punch his ticket to the semifinals, where the Island representative edged Castlegar’s Bill van Yzerloo 6-5. In the championship match, Craig scored two in the second and two in the eighth en route to a 5-4 win over Craig Lepine of Langley/Cloverdale.

Russell, Jones race to wins in Cedar

A new route for the Cedar 12K sat pretty well with Andrew Russell and Catrin Jones.

The two runners were the respective men’s and women’s winners of last Sunday’s Island Race Series stop, picking up their second wins of the season.

Russell, who won last month’s Cobble Hill 10K, pulled away from Matt Noseworthy on the downhill toward the end of the race and finished in a time of 38:56. Noseworthy was second in 39:11, while Ian Searle was third with a time of 40:20.

Jones ran away with the women’s race, winning by three minutes with a time of 45:20.

Next up for the Island Race Series is this Sunday’s Port Alberni Paper Chase 15K.

UVic rugby women best in the West

It was one of those classic University of Victoria-UBC battles, only this one was on the rugby pitch in the Thunderbirds’ backyard.

But that didn’t stop the Vikes women’s rugby team from claiming their second straight sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ West women’s sevens title.

The Vikes and T-Birds squared off in the final at Thunderbird Stadium and it was third-year Vikes Brooke Bazian scoring the winning try to give UVic a 12-5 victory.

Earlier in the weekend, the Vikes beat Lethbridge 26-19 and Alberta 36-7, setting up the showdown with UBC, who had picked up wins over Calgary and Fraser Valley. Calgary, the only team to beat UVic on the weekend, placed third in the final tournament of the season. Lethbridge wound up fourth.

VIU hockey squad set for semifinals

The Vancouver Island University Mariners hockey team has a busy month coming up.

After finishing the sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Intercollegiate Hockey League regular season in third place, the Mariners head to Castlegar this weekend for their best-of-three semifinal series against the Selkirk Saints. All three games, if necessary, will be played in Castlegar.

In the other semifinal series, first-place Trinity Western will play fourth place SFU in Langley.

Off the ice, the Mariners will be hosting their annual Celebrate Hockey Dance fundraising party on March 30 from 7 to 11:30 p.m. at the VIU cafeteria. The Doctors of Rock ’N’ Roll will play music from the ’50s, ’60s ’70s, and ’80s.

Tickets are $20 and there will also be a 50/50 draw and silent auction. The team is asking, if you can’t attend but would still like to make a donation, go to giving.viu.ca/hockey.