East Laurens bass teams make splash at Sinclair in GHSA tournament
Both the Falcons’ boats placed in the top 50 of Saturday’s state championship tournament in Eatonton.
East Laurens anglers made some waves at Lake Sinclair Saturday in the GHSA bass fishing state championship tournament, where both its teams finished in the top 50 out of 111 in the competition.
Each set of Falcon fishermen brought a full catch to shore among the 100 two-man boats that made weigh-in.
The bag of Hunter Welsh and Jonathan Aldridge, tipping the scales at 10 pounds, eight ounces, placed 26th overall. A five-fish haul for Lucas Owens and Jacob Warnock measured a 45th-best eight pounds and five ounces.
Saturday’s top catch of 20 pounds, five ounces earned Jefferson High School’s Jacob Janning and Ben Wilson the 2026 state title.
Coveted spots in the final event are reserved for only a small portion of top finishers in the GHSA’s regular-season tournaments.
Owens and Warnock placed 31st out of 184 at Clark’s Hill Lake in March with a 12-pound, four-ounce catch to punch their ticket. Welsh and Aldridge posted a 7-6 to finish 31st out of 98 who put in Feb. 7 at West Point Lake.
Four other Falcons – Gavin Washburn, Emily Hobbs, Brody Owens and Sam Davis – have also earned spots in the 118-boat field that will compete for a separate state championship on Lake Seminole in the Georgia Bass Nation State Classic in June, with their performances over multiple tournaments on the non-GHSA affiliated circuit this spring.
Author
Related Articles
West Laurens responds, but can’t recover from rough start to soccer semifinal against East Hall
The Raiders battled back twice to narrow a three-goal deficit to one, but couldn’t fully catch back up with the Vikings as their playoff run came to an end in the state semifinals.
BASEBALL: Pesky performance from West Laurens, but powerful Pickens pitching prevails in quarterfinal series
The Raiders were matched more than evenly enough to hold their own, but the Dragons’ highly-touted pitching proved too difficult to hit in either game of Thursday’s doubleheader.
BASEBALL: Tough losses for Trinity in all three games of pre-playoff road trip
The month of May got off to a rough start for the Crusaders as they lost via walk-off to Piedmont and Thomas Jefferson, and were crushed in a rematch with Tallulah Falls, on their last road trip of the regular season.