New York, Georgia teams advance to high school championship

Meanwhile, Junior angler catches potential lake record

HUNTINGDON, Tenn. — Teams from Georgia and New York Friday earned a second chance to compete in the finale of the Costa Bassmaster High School National Championship presented by TNT Fireworks.

Michael Arndt and Ryan Hujar of Syracuse, N.Y., and Cody Stahl and Tate VanEdmund of Hollonville, Ga., will join the top 10 teams on Kentucky Lake to determine high school bass fishing’s top anglers on Saturday.

The teams qualified after taking the top two spots in a competition held Friday on Carroll County Thousand Acre Lake. The 11th- through 50th-place teams were eligible to compete. By the rules only the best two bass caught by each team counted toward the qualifying weight.

New York’s B.A.S.S. high school state champions caught a largemouth weighing 7 pounds, 10 ounces. Stahl and VanEdmund, representing Crosspointe Christian Academy In Hollonville, caught a bass weighing 7-1 to qualify for the finals.

Both teams caught their bass on jigs fished along drop offs on the lake.

“We’ve beat up all our spots on Kentucky Lake so we plan to change our strategy,” said Stahl. “Hopefully with only 12 boats in the tournament we can catch up.”

“We have one area so it was good for us to give it a rest,” said Fred Chilluffo, coach of the New York team.

 

The second chance contest coincided with Day 1 of the B.A.S.S. Youth Nation Junior Championship, also held on Carroll County Thousand Acre Lake. Leading the tournament with 12-12 are Austin Brewer and Jacob Bruener of Douglas High School in Nacogdoches, Texas.

The highlight of the day was the largemouth weighing 11 pounds, 14 ounces, caught by Bruener. The fish stands to break the current lake record weighing 9-2.

“It was amazing and every other boat on the lake probably heard us when it came aboard,” said Bruener, 14, a sophomore. His previous personal best weighed 8 pounds.

Bruener caught the fish on a shaky head jig. He was fishing the lure on the bottom of an underwater ridge tapering from 12 to 14 feet deep.

Teams are competing for $75,000 in scholarships and prizes. Schools participating in the B.A.S.S. Nation High School Nation program were eligible to qualify two-angler teams to the championship. Teams also qualified through B.A.S.S. regional events and sanctioned affiliate tournament trails.

The main campus of Bethel University hosts the final championship weigh-in on Saturday.

Event sponsors are Costa, TNT Fireworks, Toyota, Abu Garcia, Berkley, Carhartt, GoPro, Huk Performance Fishing, Triton Boats and Yamaha.

Official hosts are Paris-Henry County, Carroll County, Northwest Tennessee Tourism and Bethel University.