Two more local curlers punched their tickets to the Saskatchewan Junior Curling Championships over the weekend.

The Skylar Ackerman and Carson Ackerman rinks both locked up spots in the junior provincials with wins on Sunday at the final qualifying spiel.

The event was being hosted at the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre, but had to be moved to the Callie Curling Club in Regina after the ice compressor shut off overnight on Saturday, causing unplayable ice here in Moose Jaw.

That meant a long day for the curlers, especially the Carson Ackerman team, who played until just past 1 a.m. Monday to secure their spot.

“I’m pretty proud with the boys for stringing together three pretty good games (on Sunday),” said Carson Ackerman.  “We had a close game against Team Sutherland, we lost on the last rock and then bounced right back to win two in a row and come out of the ‘C’.”

The Ackerman team, which also includes lead Andrew Derksen from Moose Jaw, plays out of the Sutherland Curling Club in Saskatoon.

They had a long day on Sunday with their first game against Team Sutherland, which they lost 9-8, hitting the ice at 1 p.m.  They would drop down to the ‘C’ event after the loss, but they then picked up a 7-6 win over Team Hom on Sunday evening to stay alive. They finished the day with an 8-5 win over Team Kydd to book their ticket to provincials.

“I’m pretty happy with the performance that we got playing at one o’clock in the morning,” said Ackerman.

“It was a super long day, we were all planning on being home in Saskatoon at 11:30-12am at the latest, but we were just starting our last game at 11:30 p.m. I’m glad that we got it done.”

The Skylar Ackerman rink out of Moose Jaw, includes (left to right): skip Skylar Ackerman, third Madison Johnson, second Makena Simmons, lead Samantha McLaren and coach Patrick Ackerman. Missing is injured player Chantel Hoag. (Submitted photo)

The Skylar Ackerman rink had their day extended a bit on Sunday as well, but not quite as drastically as they got the job done in the ‘B’ final, beating Saskatoon’s Madison Kleiter, 7-5, to advance.

“I’m really proud of the team, the whole season has been pretty successful and we put together a great weekend,” said Skylar Ackerman.

The team includes third Madison Johnson, second Chantel Hoag and lead Samantha McLaren.  Hoag missed the spiel over the weekend with an injury and Makena Simmons, daughter of Brier champion Pat Simmons, filled in to help the team lock up their spot at provincials.

Ackerman and company put together a 3-1 record over the course of the three days this past weekend.

“We’re playing better as a team each and every weekend,” said Ackerman.  “We’ve been working hard at practice and off-ice and hopefully we can put together a successful run at provincials.”

The Amber Montgomery rink out of Moose Jaw lost out in the ‘C’ event semifinals, falling 11-4 to Rosthern’s Brooklyn Fahl, to miss out on their shot at provincials.

On the men’s side, the David Gray rink fell 12-4 to Saskatoon’s Ethan Kish in the ‘C’ event on Sunday to end their run, while the Terence Stark rink dropped a 6-4 game to Regina’s Lauryl Blondeau in the ‘C’ event on Sunday.

The Saskatchewan Junior Curling Championships will be hosted in Regina on Dec. 27-31.