Andrew Bilesky had an eye on the future when he put together a young rink at the start of the curling season.

It certainly didn't take long for that young rink to find its rhythm.

Bilesky, curling out of New Westminster, beat Grant Olsen's Kamloops rink 6-3 in Monday's final of the Crown of Curling at Kamloops Curling Club. It capped a 7-1 week for Bilesky, third Stephen Kopf, second Derek Errington and lead Aaron Watson, who won their last six games, including three on Monday.

Not bad for a team just starting out.

"We decided to form a bit of a younger team to stick together for a couple of years," said Bilesky, 28, who previously played third for Brent Pierce. "We want to see how far we can take it.

"It looks like I got the team I was (hoping) to get."

The Bilesky rink earned $7,000 for the victory, while Olsen and rinkmates Scott DeCap, Pat DeCap, John Maskiewich and Ron Douglas earned $5,000.

For Olsen, who went 6-3, it was a good week, but the sting of defeat lingered. The Kamloops rink struggled a little in the final, never seeming comfortable.

"We were a little off," Olsen said. "It was a long day for us, so we were a little flat. Oh well."

The rinks were tied 3-3 after four ends, with Bilesky scoring a deuce in the third and Olsen following with a deuce in the fourth.

After blanking the fifth, Bilesky got another deuce in the sixth. Bilesky loaded up the house in the seventh, and Olsen fourth Scott DeCap couldn't crack it, allowing Bilesky to steal one.

Bilesky ran Olsen out of rocks in the eighth to finish a rather anticlimactic final.

"There wasn't anything too crazy," said Bilesky, whose late great-uncle Andy, a former minor baseball coach in Trail, is a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and B.C. Sports Hall of Fame. "We didn't have to make any crazy shots - kept it simple, cracked a deuce in the sixth and set it up there."

Bilesky, who lost 6-4 to Duncan's Jason Montgomery in an A semifinal, won a B qualifier before defeating New Westminster's Bryan Miki 6-5 in a quarterfinal and Russia's Andrey Drozdov 6-2 in a semifinal.

Although the Bilesky rink hadn't been together long before it came to Kamloops, it certainly wasn't coming here for fun.

"We've all played well since the beginning of the year," Bilesky said. "We actually said Wednesday in our super league, 'Let's go into this 'spiel looking to win it.' "

The Bilesky rink is scheduled to compete in Juan de Fuca from Nov. 11-13, and in Seattle from Nov. 25-27, before Coastal playdowns begin in December.

Olsen, meanwhile, hasn't planned a big cashspiel season, and instead is looking towards playdowns and provincials.

The Kamloops boys certainly got some experience on the weekend - of their nine games, six of them came down to the last shot, including a 6-4 quarterfinal victory over Victoria's Neil Dangerfield and a 5-4 semifinal victory over Vernon's TJ Perepolkin. In the Perepolkin victory, Olsen scored two in the last end.

"Those close games, that's why we play in these events," Olsen said, "to get the games in before playdowns."

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Michele Jaeggi of Switzerland scored four in the eighth end to beat Russia's Olga Zyablikova 7-4 in the women's Crown of Curling final at the Kamloops Curling Club on Monday.

Jaeggi's rink of Marisa Winkelhausen, Stephanie Jaeggi and Nicole Schwaegli earned $8,000 for the victory. Zyablikova, Ekaterina Antonova, Victorya Moiseeva and Galina Arsenkina earned $6,000 for second.

The Russians led 4-3 heading into the final end, but Jaeggi loaded the house and made a simple takeout to score four.

Zyablikova beat Kamloops' Allison MacInnes in a semifinal, coming back from a 6-0 deficit to win by stealing one in each of the seventh, eighth and extra ends.

MacInnes, the 2010 Crown champion, earned $4,500 for making the semifinals.

mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca