Home » Muyres and Crocker Capture National Title

Muyres and Crocker Capture National Title

by Janine Hayward
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Kirk Muyres of Martensville recently became national mixed champion with partner Laura Crocker as they won the final 8-7 over Colton Lott and Kadriana Sahaidak. He and Crocker opened the tournament at 5-0 and lost their 6th game against Desjardin and Desjardin; a father daughter group out of Quebec. The loss seemed to change their momentum as they stepped it up again and won four more straight to capture the gold and the national title. When asked what was key to their win he commented on the importance of communication. “We promised each other that during the final, we would commit to effective communication regardless and talk about different shots and ice tendencies and respect one another, and it worked!” He commented on how communication and respect are their team’s strengths. He was also very impressed with Crocker’s ability to perform under pressure. “Laura is amazing under pressure. She is a winner, so it is great having her through the last stone.”

This is the first mixed event for Crocker and Muyres as a team and they are playing well going into World’s. Crocker curls out of Edmonton and is engaged to Geoff Walker, the lead from Team Gushue. Gushue, Canada’s national champion, was in the Men’s World Championship final last weekend against Edin of Sweden. Muyres has one national title under his belt when he was Junior National champion in 2011 playing third under skip Braeden Moskowy.

Muyres and Crocker are off to Oestersund, Sweden on April 21 to try and claim Canada’s first world mixed title. They will be facing 39 other teams. Muyres is excited to get to Sweden as Canada has never won a mixed doubles world championship. “I just love playing mixed doubles,” commented Muyres. “It is so fast and engaging from start to finish and the games are nice and quick.” He thinks that mixed doubles will catch on with the younger generation in the next few years. The Olympic gold brought home by Lawes and Morris in Korea brought a lot of spotlight to mixed doubles

Now that the Olympic cycle is over, there have been a lot of changes in the curling world. Kirk Muyres and his brother Dallen, are trying out next season with a new team. Muyres will be skipping the team of brothers, Kevin Marsh, Dan Marsh and his brother Dallen after the Laycock rink disbanded. They had been together for the past six years and had four provincial titles under their belts. The Marsh brothers came runner up to Muyres and Team Laycock at the 2018 Saskatchewan Provincials. Muyre’s previous skip, Steve Laycock will be playing with skip Jim Cotter who also has a new look. He has added Tyrell Griffith and Rick Sawatsky as well as Laycock. Matt Dunstone, who threw skip stones for Laycock and is also a two-time Canadian Junior Champion is joining Braeden Moskowy, Catlin Schneider and Dustin Kidby and are curling out of Regina next year.

Good luck to Muyres and Crocker at the 2018 World Mixed Curling Championship in Sweden April 21-28.

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