playdowns draw5

The Swift Current Curling Club will look to make it a three-peat at the Provincial Mixed Team Curling Championship, when this year's tournament starts today in North Battleford.

Shaun Meachem skipped the team that won the green jacket in 2013 before Max Kirkpatrick and his rink won the provincial and national championship in 2014. Kirkpatrick's team will also represent Canada at the World Mixed Team Championship this coming fall.

This year, Kelsey Dutton will be bringing a team to provincials with third Reagan Hadden, second Ashley Resler and Lead Brock Galecki. Dutton was part of Meachem's rink that won the 2013 mixed championship along with Kelly Schafer and Carl deConnick Smith.

Hadden says it was a last-minute decision to enter the team, saying they only signed up on Monday, and the team is not necessarily focused on finishing atop the leaderboard.

"I don't think we're expecting to win it, but we'll go out and have fun," he said. "We talked about grabbing one of the last playoff spots, and I think everybody would be pretty excited about that."

The Dutton rink will hit the ice today for their first game against Regina's Mike Eberle at 2:00pm. The tournament wraps up Sunday with the championship final.