Four Bethel Wildcat teams fished their way to a berth in the FLW National Championship this past Friday on Lake Guntersville. Bethel bass team members Dax Ewart and Kyle Palmer came in third in the tournament with a weight of seventeen pounds, six ounces of Largemouth Bass bringing a five fish limit to the scales.
Teammates Joseph Woods and Matthew Cummings weighed in five fish at fifteen pounds, eleven ounces, placing them in eighth place while the Bethel team of Tristan McCormick and Stevie Mills came in ninth in the field with fifteen pounds, seven ounces.
Rounding out Bethel’s top twelve finishers were the team of Baylor Howell and Jackson Staib who finished in twelfth place with a total weigh of fifteen pounds even.
The top sixteen boats in the tournament received invitations to fish the FLW National Championship which will be held in February of 2021.
Honorable mentions goes out to Wildcats team members Luke Lamb and partner Seth Roberts for finishing in nineteenth place and the Bethel Bass Cats team of Wilson Smith and Brad Ableman for their twentieth place finish. In all Bethel had six boats in the top twenty in the competition.
“Over one hundred boats fished the Lake Guntersville event and to have four of our boats finish in the top twelve is fantastic,” said Coach Garry Mason. “We now have a total of seven boats (fourteen Bethel student Anglers) headed to the FLW National Championship next spring,” said Mason.
The team has one more FLW tournament upcoming which will be the FLW Open held on Bethel’s home waters of Kentucky Lake out of Moors Marina Sept 16-17. The Wildcats will have the opportunity to qualify more teams for the nationals at the Open.
Photo: Bethel’s Kyle Palmer.