After day two at the Canadian mixed doubles Olympic curling trials in Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan teams are in the mix. Still, they are all looking up at Brendan Botcher and Rachel Homan.
The Homan-Bottcher team had another perfect day on the ice. In the morning draw, the duo, based in Edmonton, scored the game's final four points in a 7-3 win over Jessica Zheng and Victor Pietrangelo.
In the afternoon draw, Homan-Bottcher faced Humboldt's Kirk Muyers and his teammate Laura Walker in a battle of 3-0 teams. Homan-Bottcher went to work in the first end, scoring four points to jump out to an early lead. In the second end, Walker-Muyres would rebound with a pair of their own to score 4-2.
Homan-Bottcher didn't let off the gas, scoring another four-ender in the third end. Then, after allowing Muyres-Walker to take a point in the fourth end, Homan-Bottcher would score another three in the fifth and coast to an 11-4 win.
Homan-Bottcher now have a 4-0 record after day two, which puts them alone atop Pool A.
For the Saskatchewan team, Muyres-Walker, despite the loss to Homan-Bottcher, are tied for second in the pool at 3-1 thanks to defeating Saskatoon's Rylan Kleiter and Brittany Tran 9-3 in the morning draw.
The Tran-Kleiter duo rebounded from the morning loss with a 6-3 win over Zheng-Pietrangelo in the afternoon draw. Tran-Kleiter scored three in the sixth end to set up the win, which improved their record to 3-1. They are tied with Muyres-Walker for second place in the pool.
Meantime, the Saskatchewan team of Martensville's Nancy Martin and Saskatoon's Steve Laycock dropped their third straight of the event in the morning by giving up the game's final three points in a 7-4 loss to Edmonton's Evan Van Amsterdam and Paige Papley.
However, in the afternoon draw, Martin-Laycock scored deuces in the second, fourth and sixth ends, plus the winning point in the last end for a 7-6 win over Jennifer Jones and Brent Laing from Barrie, Ontario. Martin-Laycock are now 1-3 entering Wednesday's third day of round-robin.
