The Indiana University team of Sean Gillenwater of Bloomington, Ind., and Josh Collier of Ellettsville, Ind,, won the FLW College Fishing Central Conference Invitational on the Detroit River Sunday with a five-bass limit weighing 16 pounds, 7 ounces. Their two-day total of 10 bass weighing 31-10 earned the club $4,000 and qualified the team for the 2014 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
“This was our last chance to qualify for the national championship,” said Gillenwater, who recently graduated with a degree in Management. “We both just graduated, and neither of us have been there before. I knew that we had a pretty good bag today, but I definitely didn’t think that we had enough to get the win.”
The Hoosier bass club said that they fished the same spot on both days of competition- a shallow rock bar in the Detroit River. The duo said that all 10 of the fish that they weighed in came on a green pumpkin-colored tube.
“I had never fished for smallmouth before,” said Collier, a recent Environment Management graduate. “Sean and I fish very well together, though, and he had some experience with that style. We just stayed focused and just went fishing. We found the rock bar yesterday morning, and it panned out.”
“We really didn’t know what we were going to do coming into the tournament,” Gillenwater added. “Neither of us had been here before, and we didn’t get any practice time, either. But I grew up fishing for smallmouth with my dad and I am comfortable fishing tubes.
“It was very rough out there on both days,” Gillenwater went on to say. “Our Mercury outboard was crucial to our success. It ran perfectly all week, and was 100 percent a factor in our win today.”
The top 10 teams that advanced to the College Fishing National Championship are:
| 1st: | Indiana University | Sean Gillenwater, Bloomington, Ind., and Josh Collier, Ellettsville, Ind. | 10 bass | 31-10 | $4,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd: | Georgetown College | John Hunter, Shelbyville, Ky., and Vincent Timperio, Corbin, Ky. | 10 bass | 31-9 | $2,000 |
| 3rd: | University of Nebraska-Omaha | Ben Milliken, Bennington, Neb., and Ben Kroeger, Omaha, Neb. | 10 bass | 31-9 | $1,000 |
| 4th: | University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point | Cody Lincoln, Okauchee, Wis., and Jason Hawksford, Hudson, Wis. | 10 bass | 31-5 | $1,000 |
| 5th: | University of Minnesota | Austin Felix, Eden Prairie, Minn., and Chris Burgan, Rhinelander, Wis. | 10 bass | 30-10 | $1,000 |
| 6th: | University of Evansville | Nick Uebelhor and Erick Kieffner, both of Jasper, Ind. | 10 bass | 29-6 | |
| 7th: | Eastern Kentucky University | Ethan Snyder, Vine Grove, Ky., and Billy French, Hamilton, Ohio | nine bass | 27-9 | |
| 8th: | Murray State University | Cody Sieben, Belle Plaine, Minn., and Dan Schult, Millstadt, Ill. | 10 bass | 27-4 | |
| 9th: | University of Iowa | John Mercer, Burlington, Iowa, and Keaton Williams, Fort Dodge, Iowa | 10 bass | 26-9 | |
| 10th: | Northern Illinois University | Derek Malanowski, Woodridge, Ill., and Chris Kosior, Palos Hills, Ill. | 10 bass | 25-8 |
FLW College Fishing teams compete in four qualifying events in one of five conferences- Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top 15 teams from each regular-season tournament will qualify for one of five conference invitational tournaments. The top 10 teams from each conference invitational tournament will advance to the 2014 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
College Fishing is free to enter and FLW provides boats and drivers for each competing team along with travel allowances. All participants must be registered, full-time undergraduate students at a four-year college or university and members of a fishing club recognized by their college or university.
For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow College Fishing on Facebook at Facebook/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter/FLWFishing. Visit the CollegeFishing website to sign up or to start a club at your school.
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 2013 over the course of 220 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. FLW is committed to providing a lifestyle experience that is the “Best in Fishing, On and Off the Water.” For more information about FLW visit the FLWOutdoors website and look for FLW on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube.By: Joe Opager, Communications Specialist
