The last time the two teams met with a provincial gold medal up for grabs, the game came down to the final rock.
That didn't happen this time on Monday, Dec. 23, in Kimberley, though the outcome was the same.
The Vernon/Kamloops team of skip Ava Arndt and second Ivy Jensen of Vernon, and Kamloops sisters Bethany Evans (third) and Alicia Evans (lead) won the Safetek Profire B.C. U18 Girls Curling Championship at the Kimberley Curling Club, scoring an 8-3 win over the Kelowna/Penticton squad skipped by Megan Remple of Kelowna.
Because B.C. gets two spots, both teams advance to the Canadian U18 championships Feb. 16-22 at the Nutana Curling Club in Saskatoon.
Arndt defeated Rempel 6-5 in the gold-medal game at the 2023 B.C. Winter Games at the Vernon Curling Club.
"We’re just super excited," said Arndt after Monday's win. "It took us a couple years to get here, but the hard work paid off and we can’t believe it. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. It’s been a lot of hard work from us and the coaches and the parents. It’s been amazing."
The team is coached by David Arndt.
After taking a single point with the hammer in the opening end, Arndt took control of Monday's B.C. final in the second end with her first of a pair of three-point stolen ends. Arndt repeated the thievery in the sixth end to take an 8-2 lead.
It was 4-2 Arndt at the fourth-end break.
Both teams were the toast of the seven-team girls event, going 5-1 in the round-robin to earn a berth in Monday's final. Arndt's only blemish came in the fifth draw Saturday evening, when she fell 6-4 to Juli Andrews, whose rink had players from Maple Ridge, Abbotsford, and Chilliwack.
Rempel started and finished the tournament with losses to Arndt, including a 7-3 defeat in the tournament's opening draw, then rattled off five straight wins.
Salmon Arm's Danielle Monteith finished with a 2-4 record. Curling with Monteith was Armstrong's Kyara O'Shea, who threw second rocks.
The 12-team boys event was won by Kelowna's Owen Jaeger, whose rink gets the only B.C. berth in Saskatoon in February after defeating Harrison Hrynew of New Westminster 7-4.
Trailing 4-3, Jaeger turned the game in his favour in the seventh end, scoring three for a 6-4 lead.
"We really worked hard this year, this year we really wanted to win," said Jaeger. "We put in a lot of work and it just feels really, really good to win and for all that hard work to pay off. We’re really, really excited. It’s our first national event, first U18 provincial win, so we’re really excited."
Team Jaeger was made up of coaches Tyler Jaeger and Travis Wielgosz, lead Brendan Hruschak, second Noel Wielgosz, third Spencer Rempel and skip Owen Jaeger.
The Kelowna squad was undefeated, going 5-0 in their six-team round-robin pool to earn a semifinal berth where they dispatched Matthew Reynolds of the host club 9-0. Hrynew advanced to the gold-medal game with a 7-2 semifinal romp over Pool B winner Nicholas White of Nanaimo.
Matthew Miller of the Armstrong Curling Club went 1-4, winning his final game, 8-7, over Reynolds. Supporting Miller were third Arel Ciccone, second Zach Boudreau and lead Casey O'Shea. Coaches were Ian Boudreau and Kyle Gee.
Owen Jaeger has been picked up by the Salmon Arm/Vernon skipped by Kaiden Beck of Salmon Arm for the B.C. U20 Curling Championships next week in Cloverdale. Jaeger replaced Nolan Beck at second. Beck is out with a knee injury.
Third Nolan Blaeser, lead Koen Hampshire, and coach Dale Hofer, all from Vernon, round out the team.
Team Arndt will be among the women's teams competing in Cloverdale.
The Kimberley Curling Club (KCC) hosted the 2025 Safetek Profire BC U18 Curling Championships from Dec. 19 to 23.
"We were thrilled with how everything went," said KCC general manager Blair Jarvis. "We knew that most teams were travelling a long way to get here and unfortunately they had to deal with some adventures with the snow we had last Wednesday.
"We wanted to make sure that we gave them an experience that they would remember, so we spent a lot of time on the ice, we wanted to give them a great social experience off the ice as well and we heard from a number of curlers that it was the most U18 event that they’ve attended and so we’re really proud of that fact."
---with files and photos from Paul Rodgers, Kimberley Bulletin
