A Swift Current rink made it all the way to the final at the 2026 SaskTel Tankard Men’s Championship in Melville last week.
The Steve Laycock rink, curling out of Swift Current, featured Cabri’s Shaun Meachem at third and Swift Current’s Chris Haichert at second.
They lost their opening game 12-8 to Saskatoon’s Rylan Kleiter on Monday afternoon.
Tuesday, they fell to 0-2 with a 10-6 loss to Regina’s Kelly Knapp. They recovered that evening with a 6-2 win over Martensville’s Bradley Moser.
Wednesday, the Laycock rink rattled off a 7-4 win over Regina’s Joshua Bryden and a 10-9 victory over Langenberg’s Tyler Hartung.
Thursday, the Swift Current rink added an 8-6 win over Fox Valley’s Carl deConinck Smith.
Friday, they added a 9-5 win over Saskatoon’s Michael Carss and then wrapped up the round robin with an 8-5 win over Saskatoon’s Dustin Kalthoff on Saturday.
The Laycock rink breezed past Hartung in the 3v4 game 11-1 in five ends to advance to the semi-final. Laycock scored three in the opening end and stole one in the second end to take control of the game. Hartung replied with a single, but Laycock added five points in the fourth end and then stole a pair to end the game.
Laycock lost the semi-final 9-5 to Kleiter on Sunday morning. Kleiter counted three in the opening end and added two-point ends in the sixth and ninth to clinch the win.
The Fox Valley rink of Kalis Deis, Dustin Mikush, Ryan Deis, and Carl deConinck Smith finished with a 3-5 record.
They lost their first three games, beginning with a 14-11 loss to Kalthoff on Monday.
Tuesday, they fell 10-6 to Bryden and 9-5 to Knapp.
The Fox Valley rink got into the win column on Wednesday with a 7-4 win over Moser, followed by a 7-4 win over Carss on Thursday. They lost 8-6 to Laycock that evening.
They defeated Hartung 6-5 on Friday and lost 8-3 to Kleiter on Saturday.
Knapp defeated Kleiter 9-4 in the championship game on Sunday evening. It was tied 4-4 until Knapp scored two in the ninth and stole three in the 10th end.
