Victoria Curling Centre's Cameron de Jong punched his ticket to provincials with a gritty 8-7 victory over Tyler Tardi of the Langley Curling Club in one of two A-event qualifiers on Saturday afternoon.
De Jong recorded deuces in the eighth and 10th ends after allowing a three-ender to Tardi in the sixth to erase the Victoria curler's 4-1 lead.
"It was a wild finish, coming down to my last shot, a draw to the four-foot," said de Jong, who will make his third straight appearance at the Tim Hor-tons sa国际传媒 Junior Championships, slated for Jan. 1-6 at the Coquitlam Curling Club. He finished fourth last year and seventh in 2011.
"We're going up by threes," he said of the improvement. "So this year, we're going to win it."
De Jong's rink consists of Brook Calibaba at third, second Connar Croteau, lead Thomas Thierbach and fifth-man Ryan Cassidy.
Tyler Klymchuk's split Langley/VCC rink defeated Nicholas Parker of Abbotsford 10-2 in the other A-event qualifier, as the first two of six qualifying spots were gobbled up at the Junior Men's Coastal Play-downs being played at the Comox Valley Curling Club.
Klymchuk's rink includes third Corey Chester, second Sanjay Brown and coach Todd Troyer, all of the VCC.
Rhys Gamache of Langley rounds out the team at lead.
In women's play, Nanaimo's Van Osch sisters, Kalia and Marika, will have an opportunity to play for a second straight junior provincial curling title, claiming the A-event qualifier, also in Comox.
The Van Osch rink - with Kalia skipping, Marika playing second, Ashley Sanderson at lead and Victoria's Carley Sandwith at third - defeated Dezarey Hawes of the Royal City Curling Club 5-3 to grab the first of four open qualifiers among the junior women.
Marika and Kalia joined elder sister Kesa Van Osch to win the sa国际传媒 crown at the VCC in 2012 and are looking for a repeat performance in Coquitlam.
Meanwhile, at the men's Island Playdowns, VCC's Jay Tuson and his rink of third Colin Mantik, second Glen Jackson and lead Ken Tucker had their feet up in the afternoon after claiming the A-event final.
Tuson downed clubmate Jason Clarke 8-5 at the Alberni Valley Curling Club to earn top spot in this morning's Page 1-2 playoff game that will determine one of two provincial berths.
"We're just sitting here in our room playing some cards," said Tuson, who used a steal of two in the fifth end and backed that up with a three-ender in the seventh to pull off the win.
"He had to draw around the eight-foot on the steal.
The ice is pretty tricky and he hit the guard. That was big," Tuson said of the steal.
Tuson then had an open draw for three in the seventh as Clarke trailed and had to take chances.
"We're a senior team and we got the rest of the day off to rest our old bodies before we have to come out and battle these young kids again," added Tuson, whose team of 50-plus curlers was awaiting the winner of the B-event qualifier.
The afternoon B semifinals featured four VCC teams as Jody Epp defeated Clarke 9-2 in one and advanced to play Jason Montgomery, who downed Neil Dangerfield 7-6 in the other semifinal.
Montgomery defeated Epp 7-5 in the B-event final late Saturday night. [email protected] Twitter/tc_vicsports
