A year of building for the Skylar Ackerman rink paid off last week as they came away with a silver medal for Team South West in female curling at the 2018 Saskatchewan Winter Games in North Battleford.

Team South West dropped a 7-4 game to Saskatoon’s Madison Kleiter in the gold medal game at the Twin Rivers Curling Club.

“Our goal was to be in the final and we made it there, it was a little unfortunate that we couldn’t quite pull off the gold, but it was a great game and the other team played awesome,” said Ackerman.

Team South West skip Skylar Ackerman delivers a shot during the 2018 Saskatchewan Winter Games in North Battleford. (Photo: Lucas Punkari / Battlefords News-Optimist)

The Ackerman rink — which also includes third Madison Johnson, second Chantel Hoag and lead Samantha McLaren — had been playing well all season as they built towards the Sask Winter Games.

Ackerman said it was nice to see all their hard work come together for a very strong three days of curling.

“We played really good, the ice was fantastic so it was easy for us to figure out and once we did, we just got on a roll,” she said.

“We practiced a lot, competed in a lot of different competitions and that really helped us out and gave us the experience that we needed to succeed at the Winter Games.”

The success that they were able to find at the Games is a big a confidence booster for the team moving forward.

“Having a great run at this Winter Games will give us a good head start going into the Canada Games trials next year where hopefully we can win to represent Saskatchewan at the Canada Games in 2019,” said Ackerman.

Moose Jaw athletes claimed 14 of the 42 medals won by Team South West at the Games. Click here for full results and medal standings.