Berkley, Wal-Mart win at Kentucky Lake
Berkley climbs two slots in Division I; Wal-Mart up three in Division II standings with final event on horizon
Kentucky Lake served as a late-season launching pad for the sponsor-team winners from each division. The Wal-Mart FLW Tour visited the Kentucky fishery May 10-13 for the fifth stop of the 2006 season, and only one qualifying event remains on the schedule. With year-end standings and ever-important bragging rights hanging in the balance, teams Berkley and Wal-Mart couldn’t have picked a better time to turn up the heat.
Berkley banked 158.75 points at Kentucky Lake, outdistancing runner-up Team National Guard by nearly 20 points and hooking one of the strongest Division I finishes of the season. For Berkley, the win meant a two-slot jump up the Division I leaderboard. They are still a little more than 60 points behind No. 1 Team Chevy, which has led the standings all season, but that gap is not insurmountable.
Although Wal-Mart has little chance of catching the Division II leader – Team Tylenol Rapid Release – in the overall standings, the 178-point, Kentucky Lake win propelled the team into the top half of the pack.
Sponsor teams are divided into two divisions: Division I, comprising teams of three or more professional anglers, and Division II, comprising teams of fewer than three pros. Competition among sponsor teams competing on the FLW Tour is unofficial, though scores are based on the actual, official finishes earned by pros on sponsored teams.
Keep tabs on your favorite teams’ progress when they compete again June 21-24 on the FLW Tour during the sixth and final event of the regular season on Lake Champlain. Look for results from Lake Champlain and final standings for sponsor teams competing in 2006 in the days following the event. Results from Kentucky Lake, as well as an explanation of team scoring, are detailed below:
Division I
Team Berkley was truly in the zone at Kentucky Lake, grabbing its first sponsor-team win of the season in commanding fashion. With the majority of the team cracking the top 35, consistency was the key for Berkley. Leading the charge was David Walker, whose incredible seventh-place finish amounted to his second top-10 performance this season, his 14th on the FLW Tour historically and, astonishingly, his 31st top-10 across all FLW Outdoors tournaments throughout his career. Team Berkley’s Mark Goines and Glenn Browne contributed significantly to the win with 26th- and 33rd-place finishes, respectively.
On the other side of the Kentucky equation was Team Bounty, stumbling significantly after last month’s second-place showing at Beaver Lake that had the team within 21 points of the yearly standings. However, finishing 13th this month may truly be a bad omen for Bounty, which fell four places in the overall standings and potentially out of the reach of the year-end crown.
In Division I, the 2006 title is still Team Chevy’s to lose, and the team’s third-place finish at Kentucky Lake helped drive a 52-point wedge between itself and Team Castrol, which found itself in the No. 2 slot after the event thanks in large part to David Dudley’s excellent sixth-place finish. After Chevy, standings are tight in the top five with less than 10 points separating second-place Castrol from No. 5 Berkley.
That means it’ll be a tough battle to unseat Chevy at the final event of the 2006 season, especially if David Fritts keeps hitting the top 10 like he did with his top-shelf fourth-place finish on Kentucky. But Chevy has stumbled before this season, and at least four teams have a shot at capitalizing should the top team falter at Lake Champlain.
Division II
Wal-Mart went the distance at Kentucky Lake, creating a nine-point spread between itself and runner-up Team Hamburger Helper for its first win of 2006. The Bluegrass State victory, aided by the ample angling skills of 23rd-place finisher George Cochran, put Wal-Mart in the upper deck of Division II teams and positioned it to finish respectably in the year-end standings.
In standings news, Tylenol Rapid Release leapfrogged Team Poulan-Weed Eater to land in the top slot, complete with a decent 28-point buffer going into the June’s final qualifier. Poulan-Weed Eater now sits second in the points race, 21 points in front of No. 3 Team Wet Ones, after which there is a significant drop in points before the slots occupied by the remaining teams.
Explanation of team scoring
Points in the 2006 sponsor-team race will be earned during the FLW Tour’s six qualifying events and monitored throughout the season. Standings are based on the average number of points earned by a team’s anglers as assigned in the FLW Tour’s Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year competition.
Sponsor teams competed in the most recent FLW Tour tournament at Kentucky Lake near Benton, Ky., and results from that event have been tallied.
Kentucky Lake results
Division I (teams with three or more anglers)
1. Berkley – 158.75
2. National Guard – 139.50
3. Chevy – 130.00
4. Tyson – 127.67
5. Castrol – 122.20
6. A&W – 120.00
7. Folgers – 119.00
8. Kellogg’s – 118.40
9. Land O’Lakes – 108.67
10. Fujifilm – 106.00
11. BFGoodrich Tires – 100.00
12. Gain – 92.67
13. Bounty – 83.33
14. Snickers – 63.00
Division II (teams with fewer than three anglers)
1. Wal-Mart – 178.00
2. Hamburger Helper – 169.00
3. Tylenol Rapid Release – 167.00
4. Sirius – 160.00
5. Ozark Trail – 147.00
6. Poulan-Weed Eater – 135.00
7. Tylenol Severe Allergy – 131.00
8. Wet Ones – 129.00
9. Pepcid Complete – 121.00
10. Pedigree – 97.00
11. Suave for Men – 82.00
12. Imodium Advanced – 78.00
13. Banana Boat – 33.00
14. Lawry’s – 19.00
Overall standings
Current overall standings for sponsor teams competing on the 2006 FLW Tour have been tallied, and only one event – Lake Champlain near Plattsburgh, N.Y., June 21-24 – remains in this year’s competition:
Division I (teams with three or more anglers)
1. Chevy – 654.20
2. Castrol – 602.00
3. Kellogg’s – 600.00
4. Folgers – 593.33
5. Berkley – 592.25
6. Bounty – 586.33
7. BFGoodrich Tires – 558.67
8. National Guard – 557.75
9. Tyson – 538.33
10. A&W – 497.00
11. Fujifilm – 491.80
12. Snickers – 440.25
13. Gain – 417.00
14. Land O’Lakes – 368.00
Division II (teams with fewer than three anglers)
1. Tylenol Rapid Release – 828.00
2. Poulan-Weed Eater – 800.00
3. Wet Ones – 779.00
4. Pepcid Complete – 715.00
5. Hamburger Helper – 660.00
6. Suave for Men – 654.00
7. Wal-Mart – 644.00
8. Sirius – 635.00
9. Ozark Trail – 578.50
10. Tylenol Severe Allergy – 574.00
11. Pedigree – 571.00
12. Banana Boat – 528.00
13. Imodium Advanced – 459.00
14. Lawry’s – 393.00
Pros competing on sponsor teams really upped the ante at Kentucky Lake, with several raking in respectable finishes. Other notable finishes among pros on sponsor teams at Kentucky Lake, who placed in the top 25 and have yet to be mentioned, include the following: Tyson pro Jim Moynagh, who powered into an awesome eight-place finish; BFGoodrich Tires pro Scott Martin earned a commendable 12th-place finish; Ozark Trail pro Andy Morgan, who nabbed a great 13th-place finish; National Guard pro Ramie Colson Jr., who seized a super 14th-place finish; Fujifilm pro Wesley Strader, who netted a nice 20th-place finish; Land O’Lakes pro Keith Williams, who put up a respectable 22nd-place finish; and Kellogg’s pro Clark Wendlandt, who notched a considerable 25th-place finish.