Lake Norman wins propel sponsor teams to top
Prilosec takes second straight Division I win. Snickers overtakes Division II
Halfway through the regular season of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, two sponsor teams used event No. 3 at Lake Norman to assert their dominance in their respective divisions. For Division I leader Team Prilosec, Norman was a confirmation; for Team Snickers, the tournament was a steppingstone to the top of Division II.
Proving itself a top-shelf team in its first year of FLW sponsor competition, Prilosec followed up its first event win at Lewis Smith Lake with its second straight at Lake Norman last month. The victory was sound enough for Prilosec to maintain a nearly 16-point lead in the over Division I standings. In Division II, Snickers has been marching toward the top since the season began, improving as a team in each event, culminating in its first win of the season on Norman. So commanding was Snickers’ performance there that it now finds itself atop the divisional leaderboard, enjoying a 33-point margin in the overall standings.
Team pros are earning their sponsorship benefits in 2008, to say the least. Eight of the top 10 pros in the FLW Tour points standings to date wear team colors. An impressive 14 sponsored pros placed in the top 25 at Lake Norman, and two dozen cleared the top-50 mark for big checks, which represents the highest-placing quarter of the full field of pros. This week the FLW Tour makes its annual stop at northwest Arkansas’ Beaver Lake for the Wal-Mart Open, where the stakes are even higher than normal, so you can bet that sponsor-team competition will be fierce.
Like in years past, 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. Keep tabs on your favorite teams’ progress as they compete this week, May 15-18, at the fourth stop of 2008: Beaver Lake in Rogers, Ark.
Look for results from Beaver by mid-June. Results from the April 24-27 Lake Norman event, as well as an explanation of team scoring, are detailed below:
Division I
Team Prilosec was clearly in a groove at the season’s midpoint, nearly matching its event-winning score from Smith Lake to enter the winner’s circle yet again at Lake Norman with 168.33 points – almost 16 points ahead of second-place Team National Guard.
Craig Powers of Rockwood, Tenn., lived up to his name for Prilosec, hauling in big points with a strong 15th-place finish at Norman. And teammate Koby Kreiger of Okeechobee, Fla., is still fishing with the best of them on tour, falling only a few places in the Angler of the Year standings to No. 4.
And National Guard’s anglers turned in incredible numbers at Norman to climb two slots in the overall team standings: Brent Ehrler of Redlands, Calif., led the charge with an outstanding sixth-place finish; Jonathan Newton of Rogersville, Ala., notched a fantastic 13th-place finish; and Scott Martin of Clewiston, Fla., and Clifford Pirch of Payson, Ariz., were also in fine form, placing 19th and 20th, respectively.
The top tier of the overall leaderboard didn’t change, with Team Berkley and Team Duracell still holding down the second and third spots, respectively. However, Prilosec’s momentum vaulted it to even greater heights, widening the gap in the standings over the runner-up position to a whopping 42 points.
Division II
Talk about hungry – Snickers’ pros were aiming for the fences at Norman, and they almost cleared the far wall. Pros Greg Pugh of Cullman, Ala., and Chris Baumgardner of Gastonia, N.C., both put forth amazing top-10 performances, placing fourth and 10th, respectively. The team’s 194-point win put it 15 points ahead of event runner-up Team PTSI, led by a solid 22nd-place performance from Bismarck, Ark., pro Ron Shuffield.
Based on the merits of their Lake Norman finishes, Snickers climbed a slot to unseat Team Wal-Mart at the top of the standings, and PTSI motored ahead two positions to wind up in third.
Explanation of team scoring
Points in the 2008 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 tour’s Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year competition.
Sponsor teams competed in the most recent FLW Tour event at Lake Norman near Charlotte, N.C., and results from that event have been tallied:
Division I – Lake Norman (teams with three or more anglers)
1. Prilosec – 168.33
2. National Guard – 152.57
3. Castrol – 146.00
4. Berkley – 140.33
5. BP – 136.50
6. Pringles – 133.33
7. Duracell – 122.67
8. Kellogg’s – 113.80
9. Coppertone – 108.33
10. Chevy – 87.50
11. Land O’Lakes – 47.33
Division II – Lake Norman (teams with fewer than three anglers)
1. Snickers – 194.00
2. PTSI – 179.00
3. Iams – 148.00
4. Folgers – 143.50
5. Wal-Mart – 124.00
6. M&M’s – 91.50
7. Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee – 82.00
8. Abu Garcia – 29.00
Overall standings
Current overall standings for sponsor teams competing on the 2008 FLW Tour have been tallied:
Division I (teams with three or more anglers)
1. Prilosec – 468.33
2. Berkley – 426.00
3. Duracell – 396.00
4. Pringles – 388.66
5. Kellogg’s – 369.60
6. National Guard – 364.00
7. Castrol – 361.75
8. Coppertone – 357.33
9. BP – 346.50
10. Chevy – 283.50
11. Land O’Lakes – 191.66
Division II (teams with fewer than three anglers)
1. Snickers – 483.50
2. Wal-Mart – 450.00
3. PTSI – 426.00
4. Folgers – 404.00
5. M&M’s – 355.00
6. Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee – 305.00
7. Iams – 270.00
8. Abu Garcia – 34.00
Other notable performances at Lake Norman among pro anglers on sponsored teams not already highlighted included BP‘s go-to guy of late, second-place Jim Moynagh; a commanding fifth-place performance from Berkley‘s Glenn Browne; Michael Bennett again putting up good numbers for Duracell with an 18th-place finish; another good finish for Clark Wendlandt, in 21st place, for Kellogg’s; Anthony Gagliardi‘s nice 23rd-place effort for Folgers; and a respectable 25th-place finish for Chevy‘s Luke Clausen.