STODDARD, Wis. – Iowa’s Riceville High School duo of Lawson Losee and Kooper Tweite brought a three-bass limit to the scale Saturday weighing 11 pounds, 2 ounces to win the 2020 TBF/FLW High School Fishing National Championship tournament on the Mississippi River in Stoddard, Wisconsin. Riceville’s three-day total of nine bass totaling 30-4 gave them the win by a 1-pound, 13-ounce margin and earned the duo a trio of scholarship options.
“This is amazing,” said Losee. “Early on we were joking about winning. But, after leading the second day, we talked and said, ‘we can really do this.’ We came out, caught some big fish and now we’re National Champions. It’s awesome.”
“We went into the day expecting maybe 9½ or 10 pounds and came in with the second-biggest bag of the tournament,” said Tweite. “It was a great day of fishing.”
The team locked down to Pool No. 9 on all three days of competition to find unpressured bass. The strategy paid off handsomely, producing an 8-pound, 12-ounce limit on day one, a 10-pound, 6-ounce limit on day two, and the 11-pound 2-ounce limit on day three.
Riceville’s National Championship win earned Losee and Tweite a trio of scholarship options – a 4-year, $120,000 scholarship offer to Simpson University in Redding, California, an $80,000 4-year scholarship to Kentucky Christian University in Grayson, Kentucky, or a $10,000 cash scholarship from FLW to any college or trade school of their choice.
“We definitely have a lot to think about,” said Tweite.
A total of 312 high school teams from 39 states competed for a share of the more than $3.2 million in scholarships and prizes in the National Championship and the High School Fishing World Finals tournaments, held in conjunction with each on Pools No. 7, 8 and 9 of the Mississippi River in Stoddard, Wisconsin.
The top 10 finishers from the event were:
1st: Riceville High School, Riceville, Iowa – Lawson Losee and Kooper Tweite, nine bass, 30-4
2nd: Illinois Student Angler Federation – Trey McKinney, Carbondale, Ill., and Zachary Martin, nine bass, 28-7
3rd: Lukfata Public School, Broken Arrow, Okla. – Jace Anderson and Braydon Harcrow, nine bass, 26-7
4th: Morgan County High School, Madison, Ga. – Ryan Thomas and Cole Holloway, nine bass, 26-0
5th: Madison High School, Marshall, N.C. – Ransom Boone and Russell Moore, nine bass, 25-14
6th: Legacy Christian Academy, Andover, Minn. – Ryder Mains and Mason Chapman, nine bass, 25-0
7th: Lamar High School, Lamar, Ark. – Mat Higby and John Foster Case, nine bass, 24-6
8th: Thurston High School, Springfield, Ore. – Joshua Butler and Conner Chase, nine bass, 23-9
9th: Carthage High School, Carthage, Mo. – Tristan Beck and Colson Brust, nine bass, 23-5
10th: Central High School, Martinsburg, Pa. – Jerry Brumbaugh and Hunter Klotz, nine bass, 20-5