Copley finishes first year on fishing team at Kentucky Christian University

STAFF REPORT

BSN

San Antonio, TX — The Association of Collegiate Anglers is doing an end of season recap for the 2022-23 Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia. Over the course of a 12 month stretch, hundreds of teams from all across the country, ranging from California, up to Michigan, and down to Florida, compete in dozens of events, earning points to count towards college fishing’s only all-encompassing National Rankings system. The conclusion of the season at the end of May marked the completion of the 13th season of the Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia. As the feature article series continues, today we will take a look at teams that finished the season ranked 16-20.

Finishing just over 1,200 points behind 16th ranked DBU is Kentucky Christian University. Kentucky Christian University (Grayson) earned a total of 24,720 points to end the year ranked 17th in the Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia. “It is pretty special to be in the Top 20 considering this is only the 4th year (going into 5th year) of being a new sport at our school,” said Mitch Johnson, Kentucky Christian University angler.

“Our coach, Gene Nornhold, has done a great job recruiting and getting kids from different states the past few seasons and that benefits the team in having at least a few different teams who are used to the places we travel because they are from there,” explained Jonathan Fraley, KCU angler. “We are expanding rapidly and expect to double the team numbers next year which should help in the SOY race.”

KCU’s best event of the season came at the MLF College Championship on Lake Toho in late February. The school placed two teams in the Top 25. Lafe Messer & Matt Messer finished in 7th and Riley Lawson claimed 24th. Those two Top 25’s earned KCU 3,420 points.

The remainder of KCU’s season saw them finish, on average, in the middle of the pack at most of their events. The team from Grayson, earned over 2,000 points at only five events throughout the 2022-23 campaign. Going into this upcoming season, the team is optimistic about their chances for improvement. “Realistically, I think a Top 10 is possible for our team next year because of the sheer numbers we will have. That will allow the team to spread around all the events to get the most points possible,” concluded Fraley.

William Copley, a 2022 Lawrence County High School graduate finished his first year at KCU on the Bass Fishing Team.