Coming into the AOY Championship, it seemed there were a few anglers who could move from outside the Classic cut back into contention. Anglers like Jake Whitaker, Skylar Hamilton, and Derek Hudnall all moved from outside the cut into the Top 42 in the points race. Whitaker is 7th in this event, Hamilton (6th) and Hudnall tied for 2nd. They got the help they needed, but some anglers also made it tough on them as they caught good on Day 1 as well.
Todd Auten, Cliff Prince, Paul Mueller all played some great offense/defense as they kept pace in the points by landing in the Top 10 of this event, respectively. They came into this event in 39th, 40th, and 42nd in points, just above the Classic line. With a stout performance on Day 1, they moved up to 36th, 37th, and 38th, giving themselves some breathing room on the Classic line. They can’t let up though because there is plenty of room to fall for all six bubble boys to fall in this event and give back the well-earned points they garnered.
Greg DiPalma and Garrett Paquette also helped the anglers as they struggled and dropped back in the race. Paquette fell 5 spots and was 43rd after yesterday, meanwhile, DiPalma fell to 49th after dropping a zero on the stat sheet. DiPalma has some fish today so he will gain, at minimum, 51 points today and will jump into the Classic as the bubble boy with those 51 points. With DiPalma landing a fish and probably registering points today that puts 8 anglers within 35 points of each other which seems like a lot but most of those 8 are either at the top of the standings or bottom so a lot of points can be lost and gained on Day 2 of this event.
The biggest mover on Day 1 was Caleb Sumrall who moved up 8 spots in AOY, up to 20th. Skylar Hamilton was the second biggest jumper as he moved 5 spots into 40th. The biggest fallers include Greg Dipalma who dropped 14 spots, Ray Hanselman lost 6 places in points. Meanwhile, Matt Herren and Garrett Paquette both lost 5 places.