Team Kellogg’s was back to its old winning tricks when the Wal-Mart FLW Tour visited Lake Murray last month, while Team Wet Ones cleaned up in Division II.
Kellogg’s is the reigning champion of Division I among sponsor teams competing unofficially on the FLW Tour, having won back-to-back titles in 2004 and 2005. When the tour visited Lake Murray in Columbia, S.C., Feb. 8-11, it appeared the longstanding pros on the team were angling to set the stage for a three-peat.
And Wet Ones was simply untouchable, picking up an event win with such aplomb that the team rocketed eight places in the yearly standings.
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 on Pickwick Lake in the third FLW Tour event of the six-tournament regular season. If you’re not in Alabama to see the bass-fishing action unfold in person, you can keep an eye on the anglers via FLWOutdoors.com’s cutting-edge live weigh-in application, FLW Live.
Look for results from Pickwick Lake soon. Results from Lake Murray, as well as an explanation of team scoring, are detailed below:
Division I
Team Kellogg’s used its 134.20 points to handily surpass runner-up Team Fujifilm by 15 points at Murray, due in large part to consistent fishing from its anglers. Three Kellogg’s pros cracked the top 35 – in a field of 200 pros overall – to seat their team at the head of the table at the conclusion of the second tour stop of the season. Veteran Kellogg’s pro Clark Wendlandt of Leander, Texas, contributed the most points to the victory, placing 24th.
But Fuji was the comeback story of the day, earning 119.20 team points at Murray – exactly double its tally from the first stop of the season at Lake Okeechobee. The effort was strong enough for Team Fuji to climb two slots in the overall standings.
Nailing down third place at Murray was Team Chevy, which registered a respectable 118.60 points. Combined with its incredible finish at the Big O to kick off the season, Chevy’s Murray showing was more than enough to keep them high atop the overall team standings in Division I, where it enjoys a solid 61-point lead over No. 2 Team Berkley.
A mere 10 points separates second-place Berkley from the Murray champs of Team Kellogg’s, who currently sit in fifth place on the seasonal leaderboard, so competition among the 11 teams in Division I is as tight as ever.
Division II
Wet Ones’ event win at Lake Murray was all about Brennan Bosley’s outstanding runner-up finish. The Wet Ones pro from Benton, Ark., picked up the second FLW Tour top-10 finish of his career when he placed second in South Carolina.
Wet Ones now sports a 12-point lead in the seasonal standings over No. 2 Team Tylenol Rapid Release, which also placed second at Murray. And after that, ties take teams down through sixth place out of a total of 13 competing in Division II. Teams Pepcid and Poulan-Weed Eater are vying for third place in the seasonal standings with 297 points apiece, while Tylenol Severe Allergy and Wal-Mart are battling for fifth with 273 each.
As in the larger division, competition in Division II is already heating up with only two events down in a six-event regular season along the FLW Tour.
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 Lake Murray near Columbia, S.C., and results from that event have been tallied:
Division I (teams with three or more anglers)
1. Kellogg’s – 134.20
2. Fuji – 119.20
3. Chevy – 118.60
4. Berkley – 104
5. Castrol – 101.40
6. National Guard – 100.75
7. Snickers – 100.25
8. Tyson – 98.67
9. BFGoodrich Tires – 87.67
10. Land O’Lakes – 65.33
11. A&W – 27.75
Division II (teams with fewer than three anglers)
1. Wet Ones – 199
2. Tylenol Rapid Release – 170
3. Suave – 163
4. Imodium Advanced – 146
5. Tylenol Severe Allergy – 143
6. Poulan-Weed Eater – 140
7. Wal-Mart – 119
8. Hamburger Helper – 118
9. Pepcid – 114
10. Ozark Trail – 113.50
11. Lawry’s – 84
12. Pedigree – 77
13. Banana Boat – 57
Overall standings
Current overall standings for sponsor teams competing on the 2006 FLW Tour have been tallied:
Division I (teams with three or more anglers)
1. Chevy – 289
2. Berkley – 228
3. Castrol – 226.40
4. BFGoodrich Tires – 222.67
5. Kellogg’s – 217.80
6. National Guard – 202.50
7. Snickers – 196.25
8. Tyson – 180
9. Fuji – 178.80
10. Land O’Lakes – 105.67
11. A&W – 96.75
Division II (teams with fewer than three anglers)
1. Wet Ones – 321
2. Tylenol Rapid Release – 309
3. Pepcid – 297
4. Poulan-Weed Eater – 297
5. Tylenol Severe Allergy – 273
6. Wal-Mart – 273
7. Suave – 257
8. Hamburger Helper – 253
9. Ozark Trail – 229.50
10. Pedigree – 222
11. Imodium Advanced – 194
12. Banana Boat – 189
13. Lawry’s – 169