It's only their third nationals, but Sarah Koltun and Thomas Scoffin are playing like they have been doing it all their lives.

The two Yukon skips haven't made it easy on the 10 teams they have played so far at this year's M&M Meat Shops Canadian junior men's and women's curling championships in Salmon Arm, B.C.

Scoffin, 14, is currently in 12th place with three wins, while Koltun's record of 4-6 has her team tied with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

On Thursday, both teams defeated long-time rivals the Northwest Territories in a 4-1 victory for Scoffin and a convincing 9-4 Koltun win.

It has been an especially memorable week for 15-year-old Koltun, who had only one previous victory at the junior nationals. Last year, her team went 0-12, while in 2007 her lone win came against the N.W.T.

Team Koltun has already met and surpassed its goal of winning three games and now hope to add one more victory to the win's column today against either Prince Edward Island or Quebec.

"I am very proud of my girls," said Team Koltun coach Lindsey Moldowan. "I think anytime you go to an event like this and you set goals out for yourself and then you meet them and do even better than that, how could you be anything else but proud?"

The Canadian men's and women's junior championships round robin concludes today, while the tournament's final game will played on Sunday.

Thirteen men's and women's teams make up the field, which includes the 10 provinces, as well as Northern Ontario, Northwest Territories and the Yukon.

The first place squads, after the conclusion of the round robin, qualify to their respective finals, while finishers in second and third meet in Saturday's semi-finals.

The winners of the nationals will represent Canada at the 2009 World Junior Curling Championships, which is being held March 5-15 in Vancouver.

Since 1975, Canada has won 16 world junior men's titles and eight women's championships since 1988.

The junior nationals women's roster includes Winnipeg defending champion skip Kaitlyn Lawes, who not only earned a Canadian title, but also captured a bronze medal at the world juniors in Sweden.

After dropping their first two matches against Northern Ontario and Newfoundland, the Yukon girls rebounded to hand Saskatchewan its first round robin loss. Team Koltun broke open what was a tie game in the sixth end, scoring three points. The team added one more point in each the eighth and ninth end to win 7-6.

"It was really good especially against Saskatchewan because they are ranked as such a better team than we are supposedly ranked," said Koltun. "We knew that if we worked really hard for it we could play just as well as anyone here."

Saskatchewan leads all provinces and territories on the women's side, winning 10 Canadian titles.

Despite beating the most successful team in women's junior nationals history, the Yukoners lost their next three games, including a tough 7-6 extra end loss to B.C.

The defeat to B.C. dropped the team's record to 1-5. However, the Yukon foursome didn't get down about the close defeat and went on to defeat Alberta 6-5. The girls needed an extra end and took advantage of having last rock to get their second win at the championships.

"We had hammer in the extra end in that game," said Koltun. "We just knew what kind of to expect. We just knew to keep it open, so that I had a shot for my last one."

The extra-end win got the ball rolling for the Yukoners, who on Wednesday defeated defending champions Manitoba 8-6.

The Yukoners stormed back after giving up four points in the final end before the half. The team scored four of its own in the sixth end and then added three single points to its total in the seventh, eighth and ninth ends. The loss brought Manitoba's record down to 5-3.

The Yukon girls made it three straight with Thursday's win over the N.W.T. Against the N.W.T., Team Koltun took a 4-1 lead into the fifth-end break and then added two more points n the sixth and three in the eighth to win 9-4.

The Yukoners didn't have much time to savour their success and were back in action later on Thursday against Nova Scotia.

In what turned into a very close contest, the Yukon needed to steal one point to force an extra end. However Nova Scotia took advantage of having last rock and scored three in the 10th, which stopped the Yukon from reaching the .500 mark.

The final score was 10-6.

Koltun said she is pleased with how the junior nationals have gone so far and added the team doesn't have any expectations heading into its final two games against Quebec and P.E.I.

"We know that they are going to put up a fight because they have seen that we have beaten Alberta and Manitoba," she said. "So we are just going to have to fight for it."

Moldowan credits the team's success to the training they have been doing this season.

"They have stepped everything up this year, our practices are more intense," she said. "They basically go to school and then do something curling related and that's what their lives consist of in the winter. That's why we are succeeding this year because we've put so much more energy and time and dedication into what we do."

She said one of the things the team has been working on is its takeouts, which has helped out a lot at the junior nationals.

"That's how we have beaten these teams," Moldowan said. "A lot of these kids down here, they are really good at takeouts. That was something after last year we realized we needed to master, so we spent a lot of time this year just throwing those shots."

Moldowan said the team is only going to get better.

"We're still growing, we're still learning," she said. "Our goal was never to come here and win, it was to play with these teams, have close games and win at least three. So far we have accomplished everything we have come here for."

Other members on Team Koltun include Chelsea Duncan, who throws third,Linea Eby, second, and Jenna Duncan.

The Yukon junior men's team also got its first tournament win against Saskatchewan on Tuesday. Team Scoffin scored the winning point in the 10th end.

The final score was 5-4.

Thursday was a very good day for Scoffin's squad, which won both its games. In addition to the 4-1 victory over the N.W.T., the Yukoners defeated Nova Scotia 6-4.

The foursome trailed Nova Scotia by a 4-2 margin by the conclusion of the sixth end, however they bounced back in the eighth, scoring two points and then adding one in both the ninth and 10th.

The remaining members on Team Scoffin include William Mahoney, Nicholas Koltun and Mitchell Young. Wade Scoffin is the team's coach.