UF wins FLW College Fishing National Championship

April 13, 2010

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida team of Matthew Wercinski of Gainesville, Fla., and Jake Gipson of Niceville, Fla., won the first National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship on Fort Loudoun Lake on Monday after catching three bass weighing 7 pounds, 11 ounces for a three-day total of 10 bass weighing 29 pounds, 10 ounces. The national championship, featuring a $100,000 first-place award, was a three-day nationally televised event that hosted the top-25 teams in the country.

“It’s really great,” Gipson, a UF senior industrial and systems engineering major, said. “It’s a dream come true to fish in the national championship. Just to get here is a dream come true, and to actually win it … I don’t think I can describe how cool that feeling is.”

“The title — the title means more to us (than the money),” added Wercinski, a UF junior finance major. “You can only be in the national championship most likely once in your life in anything. It’s an indescribable feeling.”

College Fishing events are free to enter, boats and drivers are provided by FLW Outdoors, and all collegiate teams receive a travel allowance. Each team that competed in the national championship sported collegiate jerseys and fished from wrapped Ranger boats.

Each regular-season College Fishing event boasts a top cash award of $10,000, to be split evenly between the university and the university’s bass-fishing club. Regional events tout a top award of a Ranger 177TR with a 90-horsepower engine wrapped in school colors for their school’s bass club and $25,000 for the school they represent. The national championship awards the top team with $25,000 cash, a Ranger 177TR with a 90-horsepower engine wrapped in school colors for their school’s bass club and $50,000 for the school they represent. The Forrest Wood Cup, the world championship of bass fishing, offers anglers the chance to win a top award of $600,000.

In conjunction with the National Championship, FLW Outdoors also announced the 2010 National Guard FLW College Fishing Regional Championship schedule. This schedule and more details of the contest are available at http://www.collegefishing.com/tournament.cfm.

About FLW Outdoors

FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, boasts the largest fishing tournament organization in the world, offering anglers worldwide the opportunity to compete for millions of dollars in prizes, as part of 189 tournaments in 2010.