Chickamauga's Sims takes silver with U.S. team gold and other sports news

Gordon Lee High School senior Mason Sims poses with the United States team gold and individual silver medals he won this weekend at the World Youth Fly Fishing Championships in Vail, Colo.
Gordon Lee High School senior Mason Sims poses with the United States team gold and individual silver medals he won this weekend at the World Youth Fly Fishing Championships in Vail, Colo.
photo Gordon Lee High School senior Mason Sims poses with the United States team gold and individual silver medals he won this weekend at the World Youth Fly Fishing Championships in Vail, Colo.

Chickamauga, Ga., teenager Mason Sims was on the United States gold medal team for the third consecutive year at the World Youth Fly Fishing Championships this past week, and this time at Vail, Colo., he was the individual silver medalist. With a second-place finish in Session 1 Sector II on the Lower Eagle River and closing with firsts in Session 5 Sector V on Dillon Lake and Session 6 Sector 1 on the Upper Eagle River, the 17-year-old Gordon Lee High School senior finished behind only teammate Hunter Hoffler from Moreland, Ga. Hoffler and Sims were sixth and seventh overall in the 2014 Worlds in Poland, as the fourth and fifth highest-finishing Americans. This year in home waters the U.S. had five in the top 12. Poland was the team silver medalist with the Czech Republic third, South Africia fourth, France fifth, Canada sixth, Spain seventh and Ireland eighth. Two years ago at Vail, Sims was the highest finisher on the U.S. gold medal team in the America Cup.

* Rhea County residents Andy Morgan, Wesley Strader and Michael Neal will be in Hot Springs, Ark., this week to compete in the Fishing League Worldwide's top tournament, the Forrest Wood Cup presented by Walmart. The "world championship of professional bass fishing" will run Thursday through Sunday on Lake Ouachita with 50 pro-division anglers and 50 co-anglers trying for top prizes of $500,000 and $50,000, respectively. Morgan and Neal from Dayton and Strader from Spring City will be in the pro group along with second-time Forrest Wood participant Brad Knight from Lancing, Tenn., in Morgan County. Morgan, the Walmart FLW Tour angler of the year in 2013 and 2014 and ninth-place finisher this year, is in the championship tournament for the 18th time, and 2015 sixth-place finisher Strader is making his 16th appearance. It is the third for Neal.

* The Chattanooga Strong benefit bass tournament organized by Hydrilla Hawgs, Fish Dayton and the Chattanooga Bass Association has been backed up from this coming Saturday until Sept. 12, with the FLW getting involved and promising its resources. It already has nearly 80 boats entered, and many more are welcome. The tournament will begin at safe light out of Dayton Boat Dock, after an elaborate memorial tribute at 5:45 a.m. for the five military members who were killed last month in Chattanooga. Proceeds will benefit their families. Entry costs $100 per two-person boat, or $75 if one of the anglers is active-duty or retired military or a first responder, and registration is being held at Soddy Custom Tackle in Soddy-Daisy, Tri-State Bait and Tackle in Cleveland and Hamilton's Sport Shop in Harrison. It also can be done online at www.noogastrong.fish. Weigh-in will be at 2 p.m., after which plate lunches will be available for $5 donations. Wal-Mart, McKee Foods, Coca-Cola and Five Star Vending are providing food and drinks. There also will be raffle drawings and live music headlined by Moccasin Creek Band. "This could possibly be the largest open public tournament in tri-state history," said the Hydrilla Hawgs' Larry Brown, one of the organizers. Donations for the families also can be made on the website or by mail to Chattanooga Bass Association, Attn: NoogaStrong Benefit Tournament, P.O. Box 22605, Chattanooga, TN 37422.

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