HOT, HOT, HOT! Ohio’s JR Team Grayson Goodwin and Colton Baker was on fire and showed out on the final Championship Day taking home the Win and Title of the 2023 Junior World Champions.
The 2023 Junior World Championship was held in Ponca City, OK home of the Bass Federation’s National Office. The Bass Federation celebrated its 55th year of serving its members this year. The Presidents and Youth Directors not only came to support their home teams competing in the Junior World Championship but also for the Annual Leadership Conference and meetings. The JWC was held on the OG&E Power Plant, Sooner Lake with 52 teams competing for the title of Junior World Champions.
The 3-day event started on Wednesday morning July 26, 2023, with warmer weather a light southern breeze and gorgeous sunrise. The entire field fished the first two days in hopes to make the final top 12 cut after Day 2 weigh-in on Thursday.
Advancing to the final day, the top 2 over all teams would take the first 2 advancement spots then with the 5 separate divisions, the top 2 teams from each division represented rounded out the field leaving the Top 12 teams to compete for the Title and the prize purse of 13.5k in scholarships.
All weights were zeroed going into the final day. The Renegade Junior Bassmasters team of Grayson Goodwin and Colton Baker brought in a 5 fish limit topping the scales at 15 pounds and 8 ounces Grayson and Colton not only bested the field for the win, but the 15-pound 8-ounce bag was the heaviest bag of the entire event. The Ohio team takes home the prestige title of the Junior World Champions plus a six thousand dollar scholarship for the team.
Pennsylvania Team of Ty Magargle and Quinten Bergey had the second heaviest weight of the entire event. The very impressive 5 fish limit weighed in at 12 pounds and 8 ounces. This would land the team in second place overall. Magargle and Bergey also went home with a 1k scholarship for the team.
Coming in at third place and also securing a 1k scholarship for the team was Kade Evers and Grady Vogele from Oklahoma. Kade and Grady weighed only 3 fish on the final day but with a 3 pound average and total bag weighing 9 pounds and 3 ounces.
Indiana team of Sam Elliott and Myles Motsinger took 4th place followed by Morgan Carden and Daniel Ingram from Alabama in 5th place. These teams also won a 1k scholarship per team. 
6th place through 12th place all won a $500.00 scholarship per team.
6th – Caston Carden and Kamden Kiker – Alabama
7th – Kingston Bartley and Nick Rusler – Colorado
8th – Brooks Higginbotham and Rigg McCrary – Mississippi
9th – Ashton Kuchar and Keaton Kuchar – Nebraska
10th – Evan Wager and Tristan McGregor – Ontario
11th – Landon Horton and Eli Meckert – Idaho
12th – Nate Sylvestri and Hinton Carroll – Louisiana
Congratulations to all of our 2023 Junior World Qualifiers and Top 12 finalist!
We want to thank OG&E for allowing us the privilege to use the facilities in hosting the event on Sooner Lake and all of our volunteers and staff. For full results and more photos CLICK HERE
