Father-Daughter Curlers Qualify for Olympic Trials Playoffs

LIVERPOOL, N.S.—The playoff scenarios were numerous—16 in total—as Pool B of the 2025 Canadian Mixed Doubles Trials concluded on a chaotic Thursday morning.

When the smoke cleared, a daughter-father pairing from Vernon, B.C. had scored the third and final playoff berth at Queens Place Emera Centre.

The story starts on sheet B, where Lisa Weagle (Ottawa) and John Epping (Toronto) overpowered Jennifer Armstrong (New Brunswick) and Tyrel Griffith (Kelowna, B.C.) by a 9-5 scoreline to finish pool play at 5-2.

On a neighbouring sheet, Alberta’s Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant looked good to move to 7-0 and a win over Kadriana and Colton Lott.

Peterman/Gallant led 6-2 in the final end when disaster struck. Gallant burned a stone in the four-foot rings which was removed, leaving Kadriana Lott a double takeout for five points and a shocking 7-6 win.

Lott’s shooter spilled out of the rings, however, and the teams went to an extra end. 

Peterman/Gallant recovered and kept things clean, and Peterman made a hit for three and the 9-6 win.

The playoff fate of the Lotts (4-3), the defending national champions, thus lay on sheet A, where the daughter/father combo of Jaelyn and Jim Cotter battled Riley Sandham and Brendan Craig of Guelph, Ont.

The B.C. family pairing were down 4-0 to start the game but scored back-to-back threes in ends four and five to pull ahead by a 6-4 count. After scoring a deuce in the seventh end the Cotters led 8-6, and ended up winning 8-7 to grab the final berth at 4-3.

The Cotters won their first two games—including a 7-5 victory over the Lotts—but then lost three in a row to fall to 2-3. An 8-5 win on Wednesday afternoon righted the ship before this morning’s heroics.

The conclusion to Pool A play gets underway at 1:00 p.m. Atlantic time, with four teams in contention for the three playoff spots.