The tournament was held at Club Sunbury from April 12-17 and featured boys and girls singles and pairs divisions, as well as mixed pairs and open triples.
Steamers prospects brought home two championships and a runners-up shield at the tournament, featuring in the final in three of the six contested under-18 events.
Gracie Retallick claimed the girls singles title, recovering confidently from an early setback.
Retallick’s opening group match ended in defeat as Paynesville’s Lacey Kiss secured the win 21-16.
With Kiss having already lost to third group member Billie Lennecke 21-10, Retallick needed a bigger margin over Lennecke to top the group by score difference.
That was what she produced, scoring consistently to win 21-6 and book her spot in the finals series.
After drawing the bye first up, Retallick battled Carla Leszczynski, a Sunbury local, in the semi-finals.
After Retallick snatched three shots on the opening end, Leszczynski would claim four straight ends to lead 7-3.
With the match played in a first-to-21 format, rather than over limited ends, Retallick didn’t panic, and she would score in nine of the final 10 ends to get it done in 20, 21-11.
Retallick’s final with Deer Park’s Addy Ryan was a thrilling affair, the local dominating the early exchanges and leading 19-10.
Ryan fought back, taking three ends straight and scoring seven shots, including a four to bring things back to 19-17, but Retallick was able to close things out in the 23rd end with a title-winning two.
After winning the girls pairs title last year, Retallick and fellow Steamer Mackenzie Parsons came within a shot of defending the honour, downed in the final 11-12 by Sunbury’s Ashleigh Moffat and Ocean Grove’s Mia O’Reilly.
Moama’s second championship for the tournament came in the open triples, where Brock Keenan was part of a winning combination.
Keenan paired with Bendigo’s Sam Nemeth and Deer Park’s Bailee Randall for the championship run.
In the single-elimination bracket, it was actually the round of 16 that brought the trio closest to defeat, as Keenan’s squad only got by 13-11, but from there it was a confident run to the final.
Facing up to Deer Park duo Addy Ryan and Harry Coleman, along with Kyabram’s Jacob Cartwright, the final was hotly contested.
The opposition trio were quick out of the blocks and led 8-7 midway through the match, but a string of one-shot ends for Keenan’s side saw his team prevail 16-10.
10°C