The Western Mustangs men's and women's curling teams are heading on the road this week, travelling to the Guelph Curling Club in search of championship gold at the 2014 OUA Curling Championships, which run from Thursday, February 13 to Monday, February 17.

Caitlin Romain skipped the Western Mustangs to the women's gold medal in 2013, after a decisive 7-2 win over McMaster and she's striving for a repeat performance this year. The Mustangs competed in the Brock Invitational in St. Catharines in January and finished tied for third after putting together a 2-1 record in the preliminaries, then earning a tie in the B final. Romain and teammates Chantal Allan, Holly Donaldson, Kaitlyn Porier and Nicole Westlund get their championship defence underway on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. against Lakehead.

The Laurier Golden Hawks are looking to return to top spot in the OUA after Romain's Mustangs last season ended their streak of two straight titles. Laurier will be skipped by Penetanguishene, Ont. native Carly Howard. Howard is in her second OUA season and brings a strong curling pedigree to the rink. She is the daughter of four-time World Curling Champion Glenn Howard. She guided her team to a perfect 5-0 record to win the Brock Invitational, outscoring opponents 40-9.

On the men's side, the Western team consisting of Brett DeKoning, David Easter, Kyle Paradis, Aaron Chapman and Nathan Gonsalves will attempt to dethrone the defending champion Warriors when competition kicks off this Thursday. Last season the Mustangs went 1-4 at the OUA Championship and will be looking to build on last year's finish as they attempt to claim Western's first OUA men's title since 2010.
 
One team standing in the way will be the Waterloo Warriors, skipped by Jake Walker, who have won two straight titles and are on a quest for a third. In addition to Walker, the Warriors also return third Edward Cyr and second Jordan Moreau, plus add lead Simon Barrick who won an OUA title in 2011 with the Trent Excalibur. Walker and the Warriors are also the 2013 CIS curling champions.

Hoping to put pressure on Waterloo is Toronto Varsity Blues veteran skip Evan Lilly. Lilly led his rink to a first place finish at the Brock Invitational in January finishing with a 4-1 record; the only blemish being a preliminary round loss to Waterloo. Toronto easily handled UOIT 7-0 to claim the win at Brock.

The newest OUA member institution will also be fielding men's and women's team at this year's championships. In their first year of OUA competition, the Algoma Thunderbirds will send a men's and women's rink to Guelph. The Algoma men will be skipped by Ethan Jordbro, and the women by Leah Hodgson. Hodgson represented Northern Ontario at the 2014 Canadian Junior Championships in Nova Scotia in January. The Thunderbirds have previously competed in curling at the Ontario collegiate level.

Also competing for the women's crown will be the host Windsor Lancers, Waterloo, UOIT, Trent, Toronto, Queen's, McMaster, Laurentian, Lakehead, Guelph, Carleton and Brock.

Men's competition will also feature rinks representing Brock, Carleton, Guelph, Lakehead, Laurentian, Laurier, Queen's, Trent, UOIT, and Windsor.

Action from the Guelph Curling Club begins Thursday, February 13 and will continue until the medals are handed out on Monday, February 17. The complete men's schedule can be found here and the women's schedule is available here.