Bass Fishing 6/12/2020 10:09:00 AM CU Athletics

Dalton Smith and Bradley Dunagan rally to finish runner-up in 2020 BoatUS Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops

FLORENCE, Ala. — The final day of the 2020 BoatUS Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops provided tons of suspense for the collegiate bass fishing community. A tight leaderboard left an open door for plenty of teams to jump up from back in the pack and take a swipe at the lead. A Campbellsville University duo did just that.

Dalton Smith and Bradley Dunagan were in 26th place after the first day of competition with 14.42 pounds. The top CU team managed to trigger one of those notorious schools of Pickwick Lake bass and weigh in over 20 pounds to slide up into second place overall.

"It's the first of June on Pickwick, we knew how it was going to be won," said Smith.

They knew it was going to be won deep. Dunagan and Smith located some key 'secret spots' out deep and had confidence in their pattern. So much confidence that they wanted to abandon their mid-morning spot and run to one of the fresh schools of fish they had found during practice.

"At 11 o'clock today I almost put the trolling motor up and took off…. We caught all these fish at 12 o'clock," explained Dunagan.

Smith and Dunagan couldn't overcome a five-plus pound disadvantage going into the final round, falling by a little over one pound to the champions from Bryan College, Bailey Fain and Preston Kendrick.

The decision to stay paid off to the tune of a couple thousand dollars and a second-place finish in one of the biggest events in collegiate bass fishing.

Colby Hays and Alec Coffey say in 15^th place after day one with 15.29 pounds but dropped to 60^th after only catching a little under seven pounds in the championship round. The duo finished with 22.13 pounds and a big bass of 5.09 pounds.

Jake Thornbury and Caleb Stephenson were in 86^th after the opening round with 9.55 pounds but only caught about five pounds on day two to finish 103^rd totaling 14.70 pounds.

Grant Adams and Kyle Roy finished in 92^nd place overall with 16.89 pounds and moved up the leaderboard 32 spots. After only catching 5.37 pounds on day one, Adams and Roy teamed up with for a little over 11 pounds on day two.

The final boat in the field was Trevor Sagrecy & Shawn Coots finishing in 97^th with 15.47 pounds overall.

Next week, staff from the Collegiate Bass Fishing Series will do a feature on each team in the Top 5 of the standings for the 2020 BoatUS Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops.

Information from this release provided by the Collegiate Bass Fishing Series

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Players Mentioned

Grant Adams: Graduate Student; Campbellsville, Ky.

Bradley Dunagan: Junior; Monticello, Ky.

Colby Hays: Senior; Somerset, Ky.

Trevor Sagrecy: Senior; Springfield, Ky.

Dalton Smith: Junior; Taylorsville, Ky.

Caleb Stephenson: Sophomore; Carrollton, Ky.

Alec Coffey: Freshman; Russell Springs, Ky.

Shawn Coots: Freshman; Corbin, Ky.

Kyle Roy: Freshman; Jamestown, Ky.

Players Mentioned

Grant Adams
: Graduate Student; Campbellsville, Ky.

Bradley Dunagan
: Junior; Monticello, Ky.

Colby Hays
: Senior; Somerset, Ky.

Trevor Sagrecy
: Senior; Springfield, Ky.

Dalton Smith
: Junior; Taylorsville, Ky.

Caleb Stephenson
: Sophomore; Carrollton, Ky.

Alec Coffey
: Freshman; Russell Springs, Ky.

Shawn Coots
: Freshman; Corbin, Ky.

Kyle Roy
: Freshman; Jamestown, Ky.