Frank LaBounty was trying to reclaim national gold.
Instead, he and his Team B.C. rinkmates had to settle for fourth place at the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship.
At nationals, held in Edmonton, B.C. lost 6-4 to Manitoba in a Saturday 3 vs. 4 playoff game. Team B.C., which had Gary Cormack at skip, LaBounty at third, Vince Miele at second and Alison Duddy in the lead position, gave up single points in each of the first three ends and found itself in an early hole. Cormack drew for a single point in the fourth end and Manitoba skip Chris Sobkowicz wrecked on a guard and allowed a steal of one in the fifth.
B.C. was back in the game, down 3-2. But, Manitoba picked up three points in the sixth end, the third point coming on a Sobkowicz draw.
Cormack and company fought back for two points in the seventh end when Manitoba clipped a guard on an attempted open hit.
In the eighth and final end, Manitoba ran B.C. out of rocks.
Manitoba finished round-robin play in third place, at 7-2. B.C., with a 6-3 record, finished fourth in round robin. The team started with consecutive wins against Saskatchewan (6-4), the host Alberta team (8-7) and Newfoundland (10-1) and then suffered back-to-back losses to Alberta (7-6) and Manitoba (8-1). B.C. then beat Nova Scotia 8-1, lost 7-5 to Quebec, downed Ontario 13-3 and defeated Northern Ontario 7-6.
At last year's nationals, LaBounty and fellow Prince George resident Whitney Warren were part of a rink that lost in the championship game to a team skipped by Cormack. Prior to that, LaBounty and Warren had helped Team B.C. to three consecutive national titles.
In Saturday's 1 vs. 2 playoff game, Alberta edged Nova Scotia 6-5. Both teams completed round robin with 8-1 records. With that win, Alberta advanced directly to Sunday afternoon's final against Manitoba, which beat Nova Scotia 6-3 in a Sunday morning semifinal.
In the championship game, Manitoba edged Alberta 8-7.
