The Niagara College curling team travelled to Sault St. Marie this weekend to take part in the 2014 OCAA Curling Championships hosted by the Sault College Cougars. The Knights entered a five-player team in the Mixed Curling even and walked away from the five-day tournament with a Silver Medal for their effort.

The Knights team is made up of alternate Ben Minor, lead Allison Mondlock (St. Catharines), second Mackenzie Montgomery (Waterdown), vice Tess Brown (Trent River), and Cody Smith (Gravenhurst).

After the event Niagara College curling head coach Scott Brown commented "everyone played very well for us this weekend. The team showed their abilities in each game, and we came home with a medal. It's a good feeling."

The Knights earned round robin victories over Sault College, Mohawk, and Fanshawe, and suffered losses to Humber and Algonquin. With a record of 3-2 the Knights faced the Algonquin thunder in the semi-finals, with a matchup with the undefeated Humber Hawks awaiting the victor.

The back and forth semi-final game saw the Knights and Thunder trade points throughout the contest. The Knights entered the eighth and final end with a one point lead. With last rock however, the Thunder managed to tie the game and force an extra end.

The Knights would use the all-important last rock to their favour. Prior to third-year skip Cody Smith's final stones, the team called a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Smith, a Sales and Marketing student, delivered under pressure and threw a perfect shot that allowed the Knights to come away with the 7-6 victory.

In the finals versus Humber, the Knights entered the fourth end break trailing by just three points. A few unfortunate breaks in ends five and six however, saw the team desperately playing catch-up in the final frame. The Hawks took full advantage and scored four points in the eighth end to emerge with the 9-2 victory.

For their strong performances at the OCAA Championship skip Cody Smith and vice Tess Brown were named Niagara College athletes of the week.