The duo of Kristopher Queen and Tyler Black of Bandys High School in Catawba, North Carolina, brought five bass to the Walmart FLW Tour scale Sunday weighing 17 pounds, 15 ounces, to win the 2015 FLW/TBF High School Fishing National Championship on Grand Lake. The win earned the team the title of National Champions and a $5,000 scholarship for each of the anglers to a school of their choosing.
“It’s unbelievable to have won this tournament,” said Queen, now a freshman at Bethel University who qualified as a senior while attending Bandys High School. “We won our state tournament and regional tournament last year, and then carried a little luck to the national championship.”
“We’ve worked hard for this all year and it paid off,” said Black, a junior at Bandys High.
The duo said they won the tournament by targeting docks in 4 to 8 feet of water using a green-pumpkin Yamamoto Senko Worm.
The top five teams on Grand Lake finished:
1st: Kristopher Queen and Tyler Black, both of Bandys High School, Catawba, N.C., 10 bass, 35-1
2nd: Trevor Yates, Little Axe High School, Norman, Okla., and Jacob Keenum, Meeker High School, Meeker, Okla. 10 bass, 30-11
3rd: Jake Lee and Corey Brooks, both of Karns High School, Knoxville, Tenn., nine bass, 25-9
4th: Zeke Gossett, Hazel Green High School, Hazel Green, Ala., and Ryan Shields, Pell City High School, Pell City, Ala., five bass, 16-3
5th: Chase Myers, Central Arkansas Christian, North Little Rock, Ark., and Cole Swede, Cabot High School, Cabot, Ark., eight bass, 17-8
Rounding out the top 10 teams were:
6th: Colorado Student Angler Federation – Josh Cundiff and Bradley Czosnyka, three bass, 7-13
7th: New Jersey Student Angler Federation – Matt Christopulos and Kyle Hamack, three bass, 6-15
8th: Kansas Student Angler Federation – Cameron Pappan and Dayne McNutt, two bass, 5-10
9th: Michigan Student Angler Federation – Chase Serafin and Anthony Gilmore, one bass, 2-8
10th: Tennessee Student Angler Federation – Saxton Long and Triston Crowder, zero bass, 0-0
The 2015 TBF/FLW High School Fishing National Championship was a two-person (team) event for students in grades 9-12. The top 10 percent from each TBF/FLW state championship field advanced to a High School Fishing conference championship tournament along with the top three teams from each of the seven TBF/FLW High School Fishing Opens held last season. The top 10 percent of each conference championship field then advanced to the High School Fishing National Championship, coinciding with the TBF National Championship on Grand Lake and the Walmart FLW Tour at Beaver Lake. The High School Fishing national champions each receive a $5,000 college scholarship to the school of their choice.
In addition to the High School Fishing National Championship, all High School Fishing anglers nationwide automatically qualify for the world’s largest high school bass tournament, the 2015 High School Fishing World Finals, held on Pickwick Lake in Florence, Alabama, on July 8-11. At the 2014 World Finals more than $40,000 in scholarships and prizes were awarded.
ABOUT FLW
FLW is the industry’s premier tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money nationwide in 2015 over the course of 240 tournaments across five tournament circuits, four of which provide an avenue to the sport’s richest payday and most coveted championship trophy – the Forrest Wood Cup. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW" television show and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world.
ABOUT THE BASS FEDERATION
The Bass Federation Inc., (TBF) is a member of the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame. TBF is owned by those we serve and dedicated to the sport of fishing. The Federation is the largest and oldest, organized grassroots fishing, youth and conservation organization there is. TBF, our affiliated state federations and their member clubs conduct more than 20,000 events each year and have provided a foundation for the entire bass fishing industry for more than 45 years. TBF founded the Student Angler Federation and the National High School Fishing program in 2008 to promote clean family fun and education through fishing.
By: Joe Opager, Director of Public Relations
