Jason Christie has goal A and goal B today. Winning the tournament, of course, is goal A; he starts the day in second place, 3 pounds, 5 ounces behind leader Jordan Lee. Goal B is to at least maintain second place in the standings because of the Toyota Angler of the Year implications.
Christie has at least made sure there’s some drama in next month’s AOY Championship. If he finishes second today, he will have cut Brandon Palaniuk’s AOY lead down to 16 points. Palaniuk came into this event with leads of 40 points over Jacob Wheeler and Casey Ashley and 43 points over Christie. So what Christie has done this week is no small accomplishment.
However, AOY points are tabulated only on the final standings. Every place Christie drops in the final standings today increases his deficit another AOY point to Palaniuk. But no matter what happens, he’s going to be in second place in the AOY standings going into Mille Lacs, and a heckuva a lot closer to Palaniuk than the 43 points he trailed by coming into St. Clair.