Every week we recap the events that just took place, but it’s often the events of the past that cause the most movement in the rankings in any given week.
Take this week. There were nine, count ‘em NINE Regional events this weekend — ABA Weekend Series on Guntersville, Santee Cooper, Lake Gaston and Sam Rayburn, and FLW BFLs on Lake Toho, Lake Hartwell, Percy Priest Lake, Grand Lake and Table Rock. Yet the biggest move at the top of the Regional Ranking involved a guy who didn’t fish in any of them.
Brandon Medlock dropped a BFL on Lake Toho from last year where he finished 95th (once a tournament is more than a year old it no longer is included in the Regional Ranking due to the one-year criteria). That one bad event had him ranked 62nd. Without it, he jumped all the ninth.
If that isn’t a reason to always be watching the rankings, I don’t know what is.
Anyways, Medlock wasn’t the only new addition to the top 10. Jeremy Lawyer finished 12th at the Table Rock event, which was enough to bump his average and him to No. 10 in the rankings.
Jim Folks finished third over the weekend at Toho, which jumped him from 26th to 15th. That same tournament was less kind to Don Demott, who slipped from 11th to 24th.
However, Toho did the most for Keith Fels. He finished 31st over the weekend, but he also finished 88th in the Toho event from a year ago that dropped off. Basically swapping one finish at Toho for a better one was enough for him to rocket up the rankings from 104th to 27th.
Amazingly, the same thing happened with Joseph Brantley, except he did it on Table Rock. He dropped an event from a year ago where he finished 76th and replaced it with a 15th from weekend. The result? A 178-place jump from 211th to 33rd! Yeah, we had to break out the calculator for that one.
Other notable moves in the top 50 after this weekend include Mike Keyso (69th to 35th), Dennis Berhorst (41st to 54th) and Michael Stetich (46th to 80th).
Check back tomorrow for a breakdown of the favorites for the Elite Series event on the Sabine River.
