McKendree University Wins 2020 Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia

Montevallo takes 2nd Place, and Adrian College Finishes 3rd in School of the Year Race

FLORENCE, AL (6/11/2020) – Today marked the final day of competition in the 2019-2020 season on the Bass Pro Shops Collegiate Bass Fishing Series.  With that comes the culmination of the chase for the prestigious Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia.  Defending title holders McKendree University entered this week with a roughly 1,200 point lead and their sights set on winning the title in back-to-back years. 

Buoyed by two Top 20 finishes this week in the BoatUS Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops, McKendree locked up the School of the Year title winning by a margin of 1,000 points.  “I’m just thrilled, and we’re really blessed.  Our goal after last year was to come back here and try for this again,” said Jon Rinderer, Head Bass Fishing Coach at McKendree University.  “The kids were consistent all year.  We got the job done, so I’m super thrilled.  Couldn’t be more proud of this group of kids.”

Following a strong Day 1 at the BoatUS Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops, McKendree entered Day 2 with two teams inside of the Top 20.  When the scales closed on Day 2, their top two teams finished in 9th & 18th.  Trevor McKinney & Blake Jackson finished in 9th with 31.98 pounds, and Bailey Bleser & Nate Doty wound up in 18th at 28.72 pounds.

“You know, we were in these same shoes last year.  We’ve had a great year this year, and our biggest thing was we wanted that feeling again,” noted McKendree team member Blake Jackson.  “We caught ‘em again this year and we’re just really blessed.  If we would have slipped up in this event, the leaderboard could have made some major changes this year.”  McKendree University becomes the second team in the history of the Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia to claim back-to-back titles.

The one team that was doing their best to shake up the leaderboard and put some pressure on the defending School of the Year champions was the University of Montevallo.  Following Day 1 action, the Falcons had teams positioned in 3rd and 13th overall.  Entering Day 2 they knew they needed to win and place another team in the Top 5 to make things interesting.

Today, Montevallo dropped off just a little bit as an overall team.  Their two best finishes were 10th and 16th.  Mason Waddell & Cal Culpepper ended the event in 9th, and James Wiloughby & Chance Schwartz took 16th.  That was good enough for 2,520 points at the year end Championship on Pickwick Lake.  Though they did not overtake McKendree, Montevallo did close the gap between themselves and the leaders by a total of 200 points this week.

Finishing the 2019-2020 campaign in 3rd for the Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia is Adrian College.  The boys from Michigan made a lot of noise on Day 1 when Tyler VanBrandt & Jarrod Layton weighed in 17.98 pounds to enter the final day in 4th place.  Following up VanBrandt & Layton’s strong showing were Griffin & Gunner in 25th.

When the scales closed on Day 2, Adrian College’s best two teams finished in 6th and 11th.  Griffin & Gunner jumped 19 spots to land in 6th, and VanBrandt & Layton ended the week 11th overall.  In return for their strong showing, Adrian earned a total of 2,700 points at the 2020 BoatUS Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops.

Here is a look at the Top 25 for the 2020 Bass Pro Shops School of the Year presented by Abu Garcia:

To view the complete School of the Year standings, click here.