Daughter off to first women’s national

It’s a celebratory Caesar Sunday at the Middaugh household.

Kelly Middaugh, the eldest daughter of curling legends Wayne and Sherry Middaugh, won the Quebec women’s championship Saturday night as a member of the victorious Team Laurie St-Georges.

St-Georges, Middaugh, Alanna Routledge and Emily Riley defeated Montreal’s Lauren Horton 4-3 in the extra-end championship final played at Alma. They defeated Noemie Verrault’s Chicoutimi squad 8-6 in the semifinal.

Middaugh is the newest team member at age 23. Skip St-Georges, 25, will now compete in her third consecutive Canadian championship—the Tournament of Hearts—after winning her first provincial women’s title. 

St-Georges was nominated to represent Quebec at both the 2021 and 2022 nationals after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the Quebec provincials.

Middaugh captured Canada’s women’s OUA curling championship for Ontario’s Wilfred Laurier University in 2018, and was a member of last September’s Golden Hawks squad that missed out on qualifying for the FISU World University Games, now underway in Lake Placid, NY.

She is the elder of two Middaugh daughters. Sister Emily, 20, finished second with Team Grace Cave at the Canadian Junior Cup over the holidays, earning a curling trip to Switzerland in the process.

The Scotties Tournament of Hearts gets underway Feb. 17 in Kamloops, B.C.

St-Georges won the recent Canadian Mixed four-player championship with her partner Felix Asselin, who skipped his Quebec men’s team into the provincial Tankard semifinals on Sunday morning.

Asselin needs to defeat veteran Robert Desjardins followed by youthful Vincent Roberge in order to return to the Canadian men’s championship—the Brier—scheduled for London, Ont. in March.