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Junior skip Will Mahoney and senior skip Gord Zealand battled hard all weekend, and it paid off as the two rinks finished tied for first at the cash spiel held at the Whitehorse Curling Club.

Each rink earned $270, essentially winning back the $200 entry fee and finishing with a bit of spending money in each player's pocket.

The spiel was only the second time Mahoney's rink has played with all four team members this season.

"We take seriously quite a lot of what we do,鈥� Mahoney said. "We don't get together often with Mitch being in school in Calgary this year.

"This weekend wasn't about making money for us,鈥� the 20-year-old added. "I think it's unfortunate that we couldn't get enough teams, but it was good that we could have a different kind of event. We still got four games in, which is what we needed.鈥�

While Mahoney calls the game, Mitch Young throws last stones. Spencer Wallace is their lead, and Joe Wallingham plays second.

Mahoney said despite his position as skip, the rink is known as Team Young. The rink's goal is to do as well as possible at the junior curling championships.

Mahoney and Young have gone to nationals for the past six years.

Eight teams competed in the annual cash spiel, with three games going Saturday and one Sunday. After the round-robin games ended Saturday, Sunday saw battles between the two junior women's rinks 鈥� Sarah Koltun and Bailey Horte 鈥� and a showdown between Mahoney and Zealand.

Due to a lack of participating teams, the cash spiel took on a different format than what had been expected. The proposed 16-team spiel with a $5,000 cash prize became a skins-style spiel, with each eight-end game being worth $100.

The objective also changed from accumulating points to scoring points every end 鈥� either two points with the hammer, or one without.

Games became more aggressive as more rocks came into play, making for plenty of strategic, finesse shots.

"The change to the skins format really added a lot to it,鈥� Zealand told the Star.

"You're playing a lot of shots you wouldn't normally play.鈥�

Zealand's rink also includes lead Clarence Jack, second Bob Walker and third Herb Balsam.

"I think the skins format is an excellent way to prepare for playdowns,鈥� Zealand added. "It was a lot of fun. We were lucky enough to hang in there with the kids.鈥�

A number of competitive curling team members were out of town or at the Grey Cup, explained Whitehorse Curling Club business manager Matt Bustin.

"If we had 16 teams, we would've had a $5,000 prize payout,鈥� he said. "While there's lots of curlers in Whitehorse, there's only a certain subsection that are competitive enough to want to play in a cash spiel, as opposed to just a regular bonspiel.鈥�