Mooibroek Starts Strong at U25 NextGen

Ontario's Sam Mooibroek won twice on opening day at the U25 NextGen Classic in Edmonton. By Gerry Geurts The U25 NextGen Classic is hosted at the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton, doubling as the National Training Centre for Curling Canada. The U25 discipline allows younger teams additional time to develop against their peers as teams must remain under 100 years of age as a cumulative 4-player total. The #29-world-ranked Mooibroek returns with Scott Mitchell and Nathan Steele on the front end, adding Ryan Wiebe of Winnipeg to the lineup in the offseason. Wiebe skipped his own foursome finishing 35th overall on the World Curling Team Rankings. In Tuesday's evening draw, Mooibroek faced Ryan Jacques of Edmonton, opening the first end with two points. Jacques got two back in the second end with Mooibroek returning the favour in the third end. In the fourth end, the run of deuces expired as Jacques was forced to draw for a single against multiple Mooibroek counters. Mooibroek scored one in the fifth end, then broke the game open with a steal in the sixth end to lead 6-3. Jacques got two points back in the seventh end but could not generate any offence in the eighth end, where Mooibroek peeled out a lone rock for the win with his last shot. Mooibroek reached five finals last year, finishing with a 59-29 win/loss record. Mooibroek won the COMCO Cash Spiel in Stroud, Ontario, finishing runner-up at the Stu Sells Brantford Nissan, the Stu Sells 1824 Halifax Classic, the Stu Sells Living Waters Collingwood Classic, as well as reaching the final at last year's U25 NextGen Classic. Mooibroek lost that final to Rylan Kleiter of Saskatoon. In the afternoon draw, Mooibroek won 6-3 over Calgary's Kenan Wipf, scoring two in the seconds and end stealing two in the seventh end. Mooibroek returns to the ice on Wednesday morning, taking on 2024 Canadian Junior Champion Johnson Tao, while Wipf plays Cole Adams of Calgary and Jacques plays Connor Deane of New Westminster, BC. Games get underway at 9 am Mountain Time, with all games streaming through CurlingZone's YouTube channel. Play continues throughout the week, with the semifinals and finals on Friday.