Lauren Lenentine has been named as the alternate for Kerri Einarson’s team at the upcoming Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
The Gimli, Man., club made the announcement Monday after Curling Canada released the pools and schedule for its national women’s curling championship.
Lenentine, who throws lead, played with skip Chelsea Carey, third Karlee Burgess and second Emily Zacharias this season.
Carey took over after legendary skip Jennifer Jones stepped back from women’s curling last year. The team won the 2023 Tour Challenge and two Scotties Tournament of Hearts silver medals with Jones at the helm.
Burgess left the Winnipeg-based team at the start of this month to join Team Einarson at second as a replacement for Shannon Birchard, who will miss the remainder of the season due to a knee injury.
Due to Burgess’s departure, Team Carey lost its pre-qualified berths to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and Canadian Curling Trials since it no longer had three of the four members from last season’s team that earned both spots based on Canadian Team Ranking System points.
Einarson, who won four straight Scotties Tournament of Hearts titles from 2020-23, is ranked second in Canada and fifth in the world.
Lead Briane Harris was provisionally suspended last year after testing positive for the banned substance Ligandrol. Team Einarson said last week it had already decided its fifth player for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts before Harris’s ban was lifted and she was found at no fault.
