LA CROSSE, Wis. — The Lake County Fishing Club team of Payton Lyndall of Kelseyville and Kaine Navarro of Glendora ended up tied for 20th place in the final standings on Friday as the Student Angler Federation’s 2023 High School National Championships wrapped up in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
A second Lake County Fishing Club team featuring Joey Gentle and Tyler Bryant of Kelseyville, finished in a three-way tie for 26th place.
The Lyndall-Navarro team advanced to the World Finals semifinals and ended up in 42nd place with a three-fish limit of 7 pounds, 11 ounces, which wasn’t good enough to reach the final round Saturday.
In the second-chance competition Friday, the Gentle-Bryant team ended up tied for 111th out of 233 teams with a three-fish limit of 6 pounds, 13 ounces.
In the National Championship final standings, top honors went to Zachary Pierscher and Cole Semler of the Cambridge-Isanti Blue Jackets of Minnesota with 32 pounds, 7 ounces. They edged out Carter Pjesky and JD McBroom of the Kaneland Fishing Club (Illinois) team with 32 pounds, 1 ounce.
The Lyndall-Navarro team ended up with 18 pounds even in 20th place while the Gentle-Bryant team finished with 17 pounds, 13 ounces in a tie for 26th.
The top three California teams all locked up college scholarships to Simpson University in Redding should they choose to attend that school. First place among California teams went to Noah Nguyen and Tyler Petersen of the East County Anglers of Antioch with 18 pounds, 11 ounces, good for 11th place overall in the final National standings. Second place went to Lyndall-Navarro (18-0) with Gentle-Bryant third (17-13). Gentle will not be using the scholarship as he is attending UCLA beginning with the fall semester.
