Teams Kerri Einarson, Kaitlyn Lawes break up the band in curling shakeup

Manitoba’s two-highest ranked women’s curling rinks are both breaking up.

Team Kerri Einarson is making some pretty significant lineup changes just days after winning silver at the World Championship and Team Kaitlyn Lawes is disbanding altogether.

The Einarson rink is parting ways with longtime third Val Sweeting and alternate Krysten Karwacki. The Einarson team came together eight years ago, and together Einarson and Sweeting won five national Scotties Tournament of Hearts titles, including four in a row.

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Karwacki was temporarily elevated to the lead position after Briane Harris was given a doping suspension early in 2024 before Karlee Burgess came on board.

In making the announcement on social media, Team Einarson also posted that Reid Carruthers will no longer serve as their coach after he just retired as a player.

Second Shannon Birchard and lead Burgess remain with Einarson.

The Team Lawes split comes after playing together the last four years. The skip and lead Kristin Gordon both announced they are taking a year off from competition, while second Jocelyn Peterman and third Selena Njegovan are still exploring their options for next season.

Njegovan is a former teammate of both Einarson and Birchard and would seem like an obvious replacement for Team Einarson.

Team Lawes won the 2024 Manitoba Scotties and just lost the national Scotties final to Team Einarson in February. But they didn’t win a grand slam event and failed to make the playoffs at last year’s Olympic trials.

Team Lawes was the fifth ranked team in Canada.

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