Bryan College expects to do well the next few days in the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Championship - for three big reasons:
(1) The Dayton school has an impressive short history in college bass fishing in general and the Carhartt nationals in particular, having won the 2017 event in Minnesota.
(2) Coach Mike Keen's Lions have five two-man boats among the 130 or so that will be taking part.
(3) And the 2019 tournament runs today through Saturday on Chickamauga Lake, based at Point Park in Dayton near the Bryan campus.
Presented by Bass Pro Shops and hosted by Fish Dayton #BASSTownUSA, the Carhartt Bassmaster season finale includes teams from all levels of collegiate recognition - from major universities to relatively tiny institutions. But all had to qualify to participate, either with high finishes in the four College Series tournaments from February to June in North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas and New York or through B.A.S.S. Nation events.
The top 12 boats after the second round Friday will compete Saturday for the national championship and the awards that go with it. The top four duos after the final round will divide into eight singles and go to nearby Watts Bar Lake for the Aug. 27-29 College Classic Bracket that will send the winner to the 2020 Bassmaster Classic on Lake Guntersville next March.
Bryan's boats in this week's event will pair Cole Sands with Conner DiMauro, Tyler Price with Preston Kendrick, Thad Simerly with Ethan Shaw, Trevor St. John with Bailey Fain and Griffin Heffington with Mason Cizek.
Bryan was the national Cabela's school of the year for bass fishing in 2017 and is in the top 10 in the Cabela's point standings this year. Sands and Fain won the elite Carhartt Bassmaster College Classic involving 2018 champions of the various Carhartt Bassmaster entities, and Fain and St. John were ninth in leading four top-30 Lions boats in the College Series event on Alabama's Smith Lake.
Four Bryan boats finished in the top 10 in a Norris Lake tournament, and two were top-10 finishers in the AFTCO Collegiate Bass Open on Lake Dardanelle.