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Two of the three A finals came down to the last rock in the Whitehorse Curling Club鈥檚 69th annual Solvest International Bonspiel at Mount McIntyre this past weekend.

Mark Evans, Whitehorse Curling Club president, said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 been fantastic.鈥�

124 curlers on 31 teams in men鈥檚, women鈥檚 and mixed events took part.

Evans said the turnout for the first International in three years was slightly above average.

鈥淚t鈥檚 great for everyone to be together and for us to be curling, to be bon-spieling again. I really noticed that this weekend. Everyone is so pleased to be back on the ice and back together.

鈥淚f it was only for that, the bonspiel has been a tremendous success.鈥�

In the men鈥檚 final, Jon Solberg鈥檚 rink had to wait for the last rock from the opposing skip Darol Stuart to claim a 6-4 victory.

Solberg鈥檚 rink featured two teens, Nico Fecteau, 13 and Nolan Floyd, 14, as well as Nico鈥檚 dad Steve, who hurled third rocks for the victors.

The Star spoke with Solberg after the tight match, which saw his rink take a 5-4 lead with a deuce in the seventh end.

鈥淚t feels good. We have a couple juniors on our team and they played really, really well. It鈥檚 nice to see the future of our sport with bringing the young kids out to play in this and hopefully groom them a little bit for their later years in junior鈥檚 and men鈥檚.鈥�

Solberg added that overall, 鈥淚t was great. It was fun. Everyone looked like they were having lots of fun out curling, so that鈥檚 the most important part of this. It was great to be here.鈥�

Clarence Jack was playing for the Stuart rink. He turned 84 Saturday. Jack has been playing since the age of 13. 鈥淕reat ice. Good game. It鈥檚 good.鈥�

The Women鈥檚 A final wasn鈥檛 so close. Team MIAL (Computech Embroidery) dominated Team Dorosz.

Team MIAL (Missing in Action Laini) skip Lorna Spenner said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 awesome. We鈥檙e a fairly new team this year and we鈥檝e been curling well, so it鈥檚 awesome to win the International.

鈥淚t was really fun. We had some really close games 鈥� the whole thing was fun. It鈥檚 always a great event to be at.鈥�

Also on the team were lead Laura Williamson, second Laura Wilson and third Tamar Vandenberghe.

Laini Klassen, who was away on a vacation, was featured on the ladies鈥� shirts, which also had a St. Patty鈥檚 Day theme.

Team Dorosz consisted of third Kandace Braga, second Glenna Shephard, and lead Eileen Burke. Skip Peggy Dorosz couldn鈥檛 play on Sunday, so Hailey Bernie filled in for her.

鈥淚t went really well,鈥� said Shephard. 鈥淭wo early games yesterday that we won, a tough loss last night, close game, really good win this morning and then a close one this afternoon; loss this afternoon but second place, we鈥檙e pretty happy overall.鈥�

Braga added 鈥淎 good end to the season.鈥�

The mixed game also came down to the last rock. The Sushi Bombers, down 5-3 after seven ends, were counting two, but Benny and the Jets skip Patty Wallingham made a perfect draw to make the final 6-3 for her rink.

The Star spoke to Wallingham after her big victory.

鈥淚t feels really good. That was a really fun game. We met these guys twice. They beat us the first time. It was a really well-played game by, I think both of us. We were both making good shots. They were putting us in some tough places, some runbacks and stuff, so that鈥檚 never easy. It was a really good game.

鈥淚t took us a couple games just to find our flow and we thought if we feel like changing it up the second game, we might do that but we just kept going with it.鈥�

The Wallingham rink consisted of lead Colton Jarvis, second Ben Robinson, third Chelsea Jarvis and skip Wallingham.

鈥淚t was really fun to play with Chelsea again and Colton and having our partners out there. Ben, too, they swept their butts off for us, so always good.鈥�

The Sushi Bombers, from Japan, added international flair to the bonspiel. They were lead Aya Takayama, second Ryota Kubo, third Kei Takayama and skip Tetsuya Hayashi.

When asked how they ended up in the Yukon, Kei Takayama replied, 鈥淭he biggest reason is to get the permanent residency up here. And then we ended up staying longer and longer and we started curling about six years ago.鈥�

As for the bonspiel, Kei said it went, 鈥渟o good. Lots of fun. We curled with this team twice and it was really fun. They鈥檙e so respectful and very skillful; a lot of things to learn from them too. So much fun.鈥�