Marquette Fishing Club Wins First Qualifier Round

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Fishing is a strategic sport. Everything must be examined from the lures to the shore position. A bass fishes differently than catfish. Anything can happen at anytime.

And thus the difficulty to slip through four rounds and ultimately come out on top of a year-long tournament.

“Each team gets a shoreline for about 20 minutes, and you measure every fish you catch,” Ethan Milburn, junior, said. “They total up the five longest in total centimeters, and that’s how they rank you.”

On Sunday, March 21, the Fishing Club won their first round of the year at Carondelet park. It was the first of four qualifier rounds to start the year-long journey to the championship. MHS beat out five other teams: Oakville, Kirkwood, Webster Groves, Chaminade, and Vianney.

The team had the most points, thus winning the weekend’s competition and qualifying for the second round.  

The tournament is a long one, too, stretching across two school years.

“Either in the fall or next spring, there will be bracket play,” Milburn said. “And then it leads to the Championship.”

With MHS’ recent victory Sunday, the team has a 32-point lead over second place going into the next qualifying tournament April 8.

“We’re off to a good start because we won the first one,” Colin Wolinski, sophomore, said. “I think we’ll be able to qualify and then hopefully do good in the Championship.”

There’s a long way to go in the season, and as Wolinski explained, the season would not come without its challenges.  

“There are eight teams in each bracket and only five qualify, so it’s pretty hard to qualify,” Wolinski said.

Both Wolinski and Milburn expressed their love for the team and the large focus from their teammates.

“It used to be we would just meet somewhere,” Milburn said. “But now we’ve narrowed it down to eight or nine guys who want to do this tournament.”

Milburn is one of the founding members of the club, being one of the team’s leaders.

With a long way to go in the season, the team is very optimistic after such a good start. A 32-point lead and an early win could signal good luck for the rest of the year long tournament.