From left to right, skip Renée Wood of USask Engineering and her provincial U18 women’s curling championship team, with third Edie Jardine, second Amelia Whiting and lead Winnie Morin. In back: coach Dwayne Yachiw. (Photo: Submitted)
From left to right, skip Renée Wood of USask Engineering and her provincial U18 women’s curling championship team, with third Edie Jardine, second Amelia Whiting and lead Winnie Morin. In back: coach Dwayne Yachiw. (Photo: Submitted)

USask Engineering’s provincial curling champion set for nationals

From growing up in Perth to earning a berth in the Canadian under-18 women’s curling championships, Australian-born curler Renée Wood of the University of Saskatchewan (USask) will represent the province at nationals this month.

By James Shewaga

A first-year student in the College of Engineering, Wood skipped her rink – third Edie Jardine, second Amelia Whiting and lead Winnie Morin – to an undefeated record at the provincial championship in Estevan, clinching the title with a 6-4 victory over Estevan’s Grace Loudon in the final on Dec. 30. Wood’s team will now represent Saskatchewan at the Canadian championships in Timmins, Ont., from Feb. 8-15. Wood shared her thoughts on her season and her first year at USask, in an interview with On Campus News.

OCN: How special was it to win provincials and how excited are you to represent your province at nationals this year?

WOOD: I am super excited. I have never been to Ontario before so I am excited to get to travel and this is the first time that I have taken a flight to go to a curling event. It is really special to be able to do it with my team, since they are some of my closest friends. It would be great to medal this year and personally that is one of my goals. The top teams at nationals also give their province two berths at the next nationals, so getting a medal would mean you would potentially give your province a chance to send two teams next year. I would love to be able to do that for my province and give some younger curlers that opportunity next year, because it is such a great experience.

OCN: Do any of your teammates have ties to USask?

WOOD: I am the oldest on my team and all three of my teammates are currently in high school, but my third Edie is planning on attending USask in the fall in AgBio, and our assistant coach is actually a professor in toxicology at the University of Saskatchewan, (Dr.) Tim Jardine (PhD). So it is great to share this experience with them.

From left to right, skip Renée Wood of USask Engineering and her provincial U18 women’s curling championship team, with third Edie Jardine, second Amelia Whiting and lead Winnie Morin. In back: coach Dwayne Yachiw. (Photo: Submitted)
Skip Renée Wood of the University of Saskatchewan, with the championship trophy after winning the provincial U18 women’s curling title last month. (Photo: Submitted)

OCN: It is only your first year in engineering, but do you have a plan in mind for what you want to specialize in?

WOOD: I am leaning towards civil engineering, that would definitely be my first choice. I am really interested in the design aspect of engineering. The other thing I am considering is possibly going into a master’s program in architecture or something like that. I haven’t exactly decided yet, but I think something in that realm would interest me. I am currently doing the flex program in engineering and basically what it does is break up the first year into two years because first-year engineering is very course-heavy. So this allows me to continue with curling at a competitive level.

OCN: How difficult is it to balance your courses and competition, since you travel and play on most weekends?

WOOD: It is definitely a challenge. I generally practice two or three times a week and on weekends I am usually travelling throughout the province and sometimes outside the province to Manitoba and Alberta, to compete in bonspiels. So it is a lot of studying in the car and when you are in the hotel. A lot of my professors are super supportive and helpful, but it is a big challenge, which is why I decided to go with the flex program in engineering so that I would be able to commit the time to curling as well. Lots of my lectures are recorded so I will probably be watching those in the hotel in-between games. I love doing both, so I just make it work.

OCN: Is there anything you can take from your studies that translates to the curling rink?

WOOD: Definitely curling itself is a ton of physics, with how the stones move, how they curl, how they react when they hit each other. I have a friend who is doing a project in engineering associated with curling and I think it would be really interesting to look into more of the science behind curling, because I think it can give you a different perspective of what you do and how it works. When you get to the finer details of the game, there are so many things that affect it.

OCN: Will this be the highlight of your curling career so far?

WOOD: Yes, definitely. Being able to win provincials and travel to nationals is something I have been working towards, so I am very excited. I definitely want to do more with my career in curling, but this is definitely my highest accomplishment so far and I am really looking forward to it.