Serena Gray-Withers and Victor Pietrangelo claim mixed doubles curling championship in Surrey
Published 5:42 pm Friday, March 27, 2026
Serena Gray-Withers and Victor Pietrangelo are the winners of the 2026 Canadian mixed doubles curling championship.
The team defeated Team Alberta Zoe Cinnamon and Johnson Tao 10- 9 on Friday afternoon (March 27) at the Cloverdale Curling Club in Surrey.
“Gray-Withers (Edmonton) delivered a draw to the edge of the button to score three for herself and Pietrangelo (Niagara Falls, Ont.) completing a comeback from a large deficit right out of the gate in downing Team Alberta (Zoe Cinnamon, Johnson Tao and coach Larry Cinnamon) 10-9,” noted a Curling Canada press release Friday (March 27).
Team Alberta had two big comebacks in the quarter and semifinals and held an early lead in the final, but could not hold on for the win.
Gray-Withers said, “My rock picked (on the last shot of the first end) almost right out of my hand and we were set up for a force. We didn’t need to do anything special and just tried to play some messy curling.”
Pietrangelo added, “It was just a lot of plugging away. We got a couple of chances and we capitalized on them.”
The Cloverdale curling club hosted the 2026 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship March 21-27.
According to a press release from Curling Canada, 28 teams from across the country, comprising 14 curling association champions, competed for $20,000 and the right to represent Canada at next year’s world championship. The other 14 teams in the tournament qualified based on their Curling Canada ranking.
The two teams were not only competitors but good friends, as “Cinnamon, who is from Cochrane, Alta., and plays lead for Gray-Withers, 24,” were in the University of Alberta curling program. They won two Canadian U-Sports titles together and Curling Canada’s U-25 championship for the third time in September.
“They’re a great team. They’re some of our very closest friends,” said Gray-Withers. “Winning a championship is awesome, but playing a friend and teammate is always really hard. You always want what’s best for them, it sucks, but it’s a great opportunity for us.”
Tao grew up in Richmond and had played league curling in Cloverdale when he was younger and said: “It was a blessing and a curse to jump out to such an early lead.”
“We tried to put that six behind us and play the rest of the game with a clean slate and being aggressive. They ended up playing a very good game after that first end when it was very unfortunate shot of hers in the first end. They took advantage of their opportunities the rest of the game and we didn’t capitalize on many,” said Tao. “As much as it sucks for us to come so close, it’s a big confidence booster for us moving forward, knowing that we belong here and we can come back and win it.”
-With files from Malin Jordan