They come from different fishing backgrounds, but the University of Central Florida’s Dustin Lauer and Matt Norman, a Fort Myers native, know how to combine their skills to put some bass in the boat.
Fishing in the FLW College Fishing tour, the two-man team from the Orlando school finished fourth yesterday in the circuit’s Southeast Regional Championships held on Lake Monroe.
They had been competing since Friday, qualifying each day in the top five in order to advance to the next round. Twenty teams fished over the weekend-only five survived to day four.
“We did the best we could and we’ve got no complaints,” said Lauer, a management major at UCF. “It was tough fishing out there.”
Their fourth-place finish earned them $8,000. Half of the money goes to the university and the other half goes to UCF’s fishing club, members of which are aptly dubbed “Reel Knights.”
“We’re honored to be representing 50,000 students by wearing the UCF logo on our jerseys,” Lauer said.
Their top-five finish secures the team a spot in the National Guard/FLW National Championship to be held on April 10-12, 2010, in Knoxville, Tenn. They will go against the National Guard/FLW regional champions from the Western, Central, Northern and Texas divisions.
By Matt Badolato, news-press.com sports bureau. For the complete story visit the Web site.