Michael Neal of Dayton, Tenn., moved up two more places for the second straight day and finished fifth in the FLW Tour's bass tournament that wrapped up Sunday on the Potomac River out of Marbury, Md.
Neal's daily limit of five fish weighed in at 16-2 and gave him a four-day total of 64-3 as he won $19,000 in the final event of the regular season. Neal was eight ounces behind fourth-place finisher Cody Meyer of Auburn, Calif.
The winning angler was Tom Monsoor of La Crosse, Wis., who closed with a Sunday haul of 15-2 to finish at 66-11 - five ounces ahead of runner-up Chad Warren of Sand Spring, Okla. - and win $100,200. Monsoor was second after the first day but first at the end of every day since as he won for the first time in his 16 seasons on the tour.
Only the top 10 anglers after three days of competition advance to Sunday's round in FLW events, but Dayton's Andy Morgan was among those still fishing Saturday as one of the top 20 and wound up 15th with a three-day total of 45-14 for $12,000. For the regular season, Morgan finished second in points, with 1,231, to Bryan Thrift of Shelby, N.C., who had 1,275. Morgan, who earned $88,100 this season, had won the title three of the past four years. Neal was 11th in the standings with 1,126 points and $69,000, two spots ahead of Wesley Strader of Spring City, Tenn., who had 1,108 and $58,000.
Buddy Gross of Chickamagua, Ga., was 96th with 781 and $10,000. Gross and Strader competed in the Potomac River event but were unable to advance to the weekend.