SAVANNAH, Tenn. – The Bethel University Wildcats Bass Team finished in second place in the Major League Fishing college fishing tournament and qualified two more boats for the Major League Fishing National Championship to be held in Florida next February.
Bethel’s Levi Mullins and partner Matthew Cummings had a total weigh-in of 18 pounds, 1 ounce to place second in the event. Auburn University just squeaked by the two Bethel Angler by a mere six ounces for the win.
The Bethel team of Sean O’Brien and Joseph Senn placed sixteenth in the tournament which qualifies those two Bethel Anglers for a berth in the national championship as well.
All four Bethel Anglers will fish in the Major League Shootout on Saturday which will be live streamed across the nation on national television.
A total of two hundred and twenty four boats from across America competed in the tournament. “Only the top ten percent of the field moves on to the national championship from this event,” said Coach Mason, Head Coach of the Wildcat Fishing Team. “We are very proud of all of our guys. They seem to stay in the top ten percent almost every tournament that we fish,” added Mason.
The Wildcats won a major championship this past February in Dayton, Tennessee when they competed in The Major League Fishing Open held on Lake Chickamauga.
Bethel has five alumni from the fishing program competing in the professional level in both Bassmasters and Major League Fishing including, Tristan McCormick, Cole Floyd, Cody Huff, K J Queen, and John Garrett.
McCormick, Huff, and Queen have all qualified to fish the World Championship of Professional Fishing as they will each compete in the coveted Bassmasters Classic in Knoxville in the Spring of 2023.
This is the second time each of those three Bethel grads have qualified to fish the Classic for a chance at a purse of over one million dollars. Bethel University is the only school or university to have had three student anglers qualify and fish the Classic as college anglers.
John Garrett in 2017, Cody Huff in 2019, and Tristan McCormick this past February all fished The Classic as student anglers for Bethel.