TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — A little adversity builds character, they say, but the wire-to-wire winners of the 2018 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship presented by Bass Pro Shops on Oklahoma’s Tenkiller Lake Saturday said it also builds a bundle of nerves.

After two solid, trouble-free days and even with a 6-pound, 2-ounce lead going into the final day, Bethel University’s Garrett Enders and Cody Huff felt they left the door open when Campbellsville University pulled a miracle from the stingy, sinfully hot waters of Tenkiller — the biggest bag of the contest.

The Tahlequah crowd on the Northeastern State University campus erupted in screams as Campbellsville’s Bradley Dunagan and Nick Ratliff dragged a big green 6-pound anchor across the stage and posted 18 pounds, 2 ounces to climb from fifth place to snatch the hot seat away from West Virginia University’s Nolan Minor and Casey Lanier, who posted 15-4 of their own on the final day.

With just three fish in their bag and a deficit of 7-4 to cover for the win, Enders confessed he had no words to describe the feeling and Huff just said, “I’m nervous, I’m ready to get it going.”

Their three hardest-won fish of the tournament sealed the win with 9-2 for the day and a total of 41-6 for the three days on Tenkiller.

In addition to taking the championship title, Enders and Huff join the Campbellsville and West Virginia teams, along with Cole Burdeshaw and Peyton McCord of Auburn University as the Top 4 head to the 2018 Carhartt College Bracket presented by Bass Pro Shops, set for Aug. 14-16 on Milford Lake out of Junction City, Kan.

A berth in the 2019 Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods, set for March 15-17 on the Tennessee River hosted at Knoxville, will be on the line for the eight anglers there, who will face off in the bracket-style, catch-and-release contest.

The college championship was tough and inconsistent as promised with sultry heat the first two days. Today’s finale brought a little break in the heat, but an invasion of recreational boaters that kept things topsy-turvy.

Enders and Huff were the only anglers to limit both of the first two days, and they did it quickly each morning, and without error.

“We hadn’t lost a fish all week; we lost four keepers today,” Huff said. “I guess you have to pay your dues.” Saturday they also sacrificed 14 flutter spoons to the docks of Tenkiller.

The first fish lost offered an indication of the lackluster luck factor ahead as it snagged a dockside obstacle. “He jumped up and actually got my jigging spoon’s hook caught on a rope holding a minnow bucket,” Huff said. “He was just hanging there and all we could do was watch him get off.”

All of their fish came on either a 5 1/2-inch Strike King Sexy Spoon or a 7/8-ounce Jewel Jigging Spoon as they targeted sunken cedars around docks with most hits happening between 15 and 20 feet.

“Most everything hit it on the way down,” Huff said. “You drop it and when it gets to 20 then you just work it back up.” One of the good fish missed Saturday followed the spoon nearly up to the boat, however. “He nailed it and dove but he came off,” he said.

Campbellsville’s Dunagan and Ratliff also worked spoons around marinas, but worked so hard at it they had to make a run to the nearest Bass Pro Shops, in Broken Arrow, to restock after Day 2.

“We just started looking for spider webs, pitching where nobody else had been,” Ratliff said. “We lost like 15 spoons today.”

Their two best lures were a 4-inch Strike King Sexy Spoon and a 3.75-inch Talon Custom Lures Lake Fork Flutter Spoon. “It’s a little heavier on a shorter frame so you can slide it back in there,” Ratliff said. A key bait their first two days was a Zoom Hand-Poured Trick Worm on a drop shot.

The Auburn anglers took a different route to the top. They targeted offshore brushpiles at 15 to 20 feet with a standup jighead and finesse worms, a strategy that proved hard with increased recreational traffic Saturday.

“We should have been flipping spoons under docks,” Burdeshaw said.

West Virginia’s Nolan Minor said they pieced together a variety of bites, junk fishing from the dam to a “magic tree” as far up the Illinois River as they could run.

“Today was the first day we caught more than one fish on the same bait,” Minor said. Saturday they caught two on a 6-inch Mega bass Magdraft, two on a 3-inch Keitech swimbait on a spot loaded with schooling bass, and a Berkley Dredger 25.5 deep-diving crankbait.

For Garrett, the win holds extra meaning as nearly four years earlier to the day, July 19, 2014, he and then-partner Nick Osman won the first Bassmaster High School Championship presented by Carhartt on Kentucky Lake. Garrett is now the only angler to win both and high school and college championship event in B.A.S.S. history.

“You can’t help but remember something like that,” he said. Deciding which was the more thrilling day took little thought, however.

“Oh, this is 10 times better,” he said.

A 6-3 largemouth caught on Day 2 by Hayden Bartee of Alabama’s Jefferson State University held up as Carhartt Big Bass for a $500 Carhartt gift certificate.

For more information, visit Bassmaster.com/college.

Name # Fish # Live Lbs – Oz # Fish # Live Lbs-Oz PTS
1 Garrett Enders – Cody Huff Bethel University 3 3 9- 2 13 12 41- 6 500.00
2 Bradley Dunagan – Nick Ratliff Campbellsville University 5 5 18- 2 13 12 39- 7 496.32
3 Nolan Minor – Casey Lanier West Virginia University 5 5 15- 4 11 11 32-13 492.65
4 Cole Burdeshaw – Peyton McCord Auburn University 2 2 5- 0 10 8 31- 2 488.97
5 Ty Cox – Alden Keel Jr Blue Mountain College 3 3 7- 5 10 10 28- 8 485.29
6 Thor Swanson – Mitch Swanson Bemidji State University 3 2 6- 9 12 10 28- 5 481.62
7 Lucas Murphy – Nolan Hitt Grand Valley State University 1 1 2- 1 10 10 27-11 477.94
8 Dustin Nash – Gregory Green Northwestern State University 2 1 4- 2 10 9 25- 0 474.26
9 Dillon Harrell – Colby Bryant Sam Houston State University 1 1 2- 5 8 8 22- 9 470.59
10 Tanner Ward – Kent State University 2 2 3-10 9 9 20- 3 466.91
11 Hunter Louden – Seth Roberts Bethel University 1 1 2- 8 6 6 19-14 463.24
12 Thad Simerly – Ethan Shaw Bryan College 0 0 0- 0 7 7 16-11 459.56
13 Carter McNeil – Cole Floyd Bethel University 7 7 15- 6 455.88
14 Conner Choate – Hunter DeSplinter UW – Platteville 5 5 15- 3 452.21
15 Taylor Hamburger – Carson Smith Northeastern State University 5 5 14-15 448.53
16 Lee Mattox – Anderson Aldag University of Alabama 6 5 14-14 444.85
17 Hunter Sales – Tristan Stalsworth Carson-Newman University 6 6 14- 7 441.18
18 Nick Marsh – Jarrod Layton Adrian College 4 4 14- 1 437.50
19 Kory England – Matt Baker Arkansas Tech University 5 5 14- 0 433.82
20 Logan Parks – Lucas Lindsay Auburn University 6 6 13-14 430.15
21 Zeke Gossett – Hayden Bartee Jefferson State 4 4 13-13 426.47
22 JP Kimbrough – Ryan Antee LSU Shreveport 4 3 13-11 422.79
23 Justin Barnes – Adam Carroll University of Montevallo 4 4 13- 8 419.12
24 Jacob Daily – Andrew Deloney University of Alabama 4 2 13- 3 415.44
25 Tyler Rivet – Jared Bascle Nicholls State University 5 5 12-10 411.76
26 Tyler Craig – Spencer Lambert U. of Louisiana at Monroe 5 4 12-10 408.09
27 Jordan Hartman – Hunter McKinley Murray State University 6 5 12- 7 404.41
28 Hunter Reifschneider – Jonathan Klaes University of Dubuque 5 5 11-15 400.74
29 Miller Spivey – Chandler Sickafoose Wallace State Hanceville 3 2 11-15 397.06
30 Gavin Lagle – Atom Ward Indiana University Southeast 4 4 11-14 393.38
31 Brian Pahl – John Garrett Bethel University 5 5 11-12 389.71
32 Josh Dugger – Jake Dugger Arkansas Tech University 3 2 11- 5 386.03
33 Nick Inzeo – Nick Montilino Murray State University 4 4 11- 3 382.35
34 Ben Stone – Greyson Williams Lander University 4 4 10-15 378.68
35 Nathan Bell – Cole Sands Bryan College 3 3 10-11 375.00
36 Mitchell Jennings – Roy Zhang Auburn University 5 4 10- 9 371.32
37 Jarred Jones – Devin Mobbs Jacksonville State University 4 4 10- 6 367.65
38 Bennett Pierce – Austin Phillips Arkansas Tech University 4 4 9-14 363.97
39 Cully Scroggins – Nathon Portch Bethel University 4 3 9-14 360.29
40 Alex Murray – Trent Manuel McNeese State University 4 4 9- 9 356.62
41 Evan Slentz – Colin Slentz Lander University 4 4 9- 7 352.94
42 Austin Miles – Cooper Brown Colorado State University, Pueblo 4 4 9- 7 349.26
43 Matthew Cross – Mekiah Jack Middle Tennessee State University 4 4 9- 6 345.59
44 Caiden Sinclair – Hunter Gibson University of Alabama 4 4 9- 3 341.91
45 Cody Stahl – Reese Kingston SCAD 3 3 9- 2 338.24
46 Dakota Cantrell – Austin Moore Campbellsville University 3 3 8-11 334.56
47 Spencer Hahn – Ben Wanke University of Wisconsin 4 4 8-10 330.88
48 Jake Biram – Rhett Meyer Oklahoma State University 3 3 8- 7 327.21
49 Patrick Pelt – Logan McEwen Auburn University 4 4 8- 7 323.53
50 Dalton Childers – Blake Spradlin Auburn University 3 3 8- 6 319.85
51 Cullen Lamm-Hoover – Jules Williams Hampden-Sydney College 4 3 8- 3 316.18
52 Dustin Jones – Dalton Smith Campbellsville University 3 3 7-10 312.50
53 Dillon Bryant – Dustin Wagner Patrick Henry Comm College 3 2 7- 5 308.82
54 Carson Leber – Tyler Bounds Chico State 2 2 7- 3 305.15
55 John-Michael Brattlof – Cody Barchenger Stephen F Austin State University 3 3 7- 2 301.47
56 Ben Barrus – Tyler VanBrandt Adrian College 3 3 7- 0 297.79
57 Joseph Bruener – Nathan Doty McKendree University 2 2 6-14 294.12
58 Jackson Carrell – Kyle Pasket Sam Houston State University 3 3 6-12 290.44
59 Daniel Smathers – Jack Reed Liberty University 3 2 6-11 286.76
60 Adam Forester – Scott McClellan Louisiana Tech 3 2 6- 7 283.09
61 Cole Walker – Wilson Smith Bethel University 2 2 6- 3 279.41
62 Jacob Shannon – Brandon Murphy University of Texas at Tyler 2 2 6- 2 275.74
63 Connor Whisenant – Carter Henderson Texas A&M University 3 3 5-15 272.06
64 Brennan Soileau – Garrett McDonald Louisiana Tech 3 3 5- 9 268.38
65 Reid Conner – Joshua Butts Wallace State Hanceville 2 2 5- 7 264.71
66 Travis Blenn – Jake Hoselton Kansas State 2 2 5- 4 261.03
67 Joe McClosky – John-Austin Welch Bethel University 3 3 5- 4 257.35
68 KJ Queen – Brad Ableman Bethel University 2 2 5- 4 253.68
69 Chris Walter – Jacob Gress Indiana University 2 2 4-14 250.00
70 Travis Howard – Sam Carris Tennessee Tech University 2 2 4-11 246.32
71 Cade Reeder – Will Harding Wallace State Hanceville 2 2 4-10 242.65
72 Zachariah Edwards – Drew Douglas University of Central Oklahoma 2 0 4- 8 238.97
73 Branden Newcome – Michael Shughart West Virginia University 1 1 4- 8 235.29
74 Caleb Dennis – Hunter Presley Central Alabama Comm College 2 2 4- 7 231.62
75 Shane Campbell – Ethan Jones McKendree University 2 2 4- 4 227.94
75 Hunter Stewart – Luke Slaton U. of North Georgia 2 2 4- 4 227.94
77 John Moore – Clark Mannas Texas A&M University 1 1 4- 4 220.59
78 Ryan Fox – Stephen Jesso Penn State 2 1 4- 2 216.91
79 Mark Moran – Brandon Robinson Glenville State College 2 2 4- 1 213.24
80 Nathan Ragsdale – Jerimiah Freelund University of Georgia 2 2 4- 0 209.56
81 Chad Sweitzer – Matthew Featherston Chico State 1 1 4- 0 205.88
82 Ryan Nevil – Nathan Wood Dallas Baptist University 2 2 3-15 202.21
83 Kyler Chelminiak – Ricky Harris Bethel University 1 1 3-13 198.53
84 Luke Potter – Stephen Thomas Lamar University 1 0 3-12 194.85
85 Conner Fogg – Chandler Fogg Bryan College 1 1 3- 3 191.18
85 Parker Humber – Carlos Welch Itawamba Comm College 1 1 3- 3 191.18
87 Thomas Robbins – Kevin Lukens Michigan State University 1 1 3- 2 183.82
88 Crosley Welch – Hayden Lee Missouri State University 1 1 2-15 180.15
89 Michael Whiteacre – Romolo Rabasi Ohio State University 1 1 2-14 176.47
90 Johnny Ledet – Logan Laprarie Northwestern State University 1 1 2-10 172.79
90 Trevor McKinney – Curtis Lilly McKendree University 1 1 2-10 172.79
92 Mason Beatty – Jacob Keith East Texas Baptist University 1 1 2- 8 165.44
92 Tristan McCormick – Dakota Pierce Bethel University 1 1 2- 8 165.44
92 Taylor Morten – Austin Porter Arkansas Tech University 1 1 2- 8 165.44
95 Drew Elrod – Luke Byerly U. of Tennessee 1 1 2- 5 154.41
95 Micah Speights – Clay Kepley UNC Charlotte 1 1 2- 5 154.41
95 Trent Turner – Kyle Weems Louisiana Tech 1 1 2- 5 154.41
98 Thomas Milstead – Jared Turnbloom University of Alabama 1 1 2- 4 143.38
98 Zach Vielhauer – Will Andrie Kansas State 1 1 2- 4 143.38
100 Tyler Robinson – Ben Seaman Clarkson University 1 1 2- 3 136.03
101 Cole Buser – Marquz Perez New Mexico State University 1 1 2- 2 132.35
101 Ryan Kent – David Brashear Georgia Southern 1 1 2- 2 132.35
103 Caleb Gibson – Tyler Winn Northeastern State University 1 1 2- 1 125.00
103 Denver Satterlee – Landon Smith Calhoun Community College 1 1 2- 1 125.00
103 Kyle Stafford – Evan Wieber Polk State College 1 1 2- 1 125.00
106 Blake Albertson – Adam Puckett Murray State University 1 1 1-15 113.97
106 Josh Bean – Caden Watson Tennessee Tech University 1 1 1-15 113.97
106 Jonathan Kelley – Joseph Castelluccio Coastal Carolina 1 1 1-15 113.97
106 Jarrett Robertson – Brandon Smith Tarleton State University 1 1 1-15 113.97
110 Jacob Anderson – Christopher Lewis University of Wisconsin 1 1 1-14 99.26
110 Logan Brewster – Chase Dawson U. of Tennessee 1 1 1-14 99.26
112 Andrew Wolfe – Colin Steck University of Wisconsin 1 1 1-13 91.91
113 Noah Garnett – Tyler Pendergrass Wallace State Hanceville 1 1 1-12 88.24
114 Jeffrey Hopkins – Austin Handley Auburn University 1 1 1-11 84.56
115 Hunter Freeman – Wesley Banks U. of Louisiana at Monroe 1 1 1-10 80.88
115 Jack Hippe – Nick Czajka Adrian College 1 1 1-10 80.88
117 Mike Anderson – Zachary Schnepf UW-Oshkosh 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Collin Bode – Josh Perrin Sam Houston State University 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Will Brown – Chase Chastain Jacksonville State University 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Coleton Caldwell – Chandler Robertson UMKC School of Dentistry 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Drew Coker – Clayton Childs U. of North Georgia 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Evan Coleman – Josh Soroka Texas State University 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Jacob Foutz – Jake Lee Bryan College 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Matt Garfield – Zack St John University of Minnesota Duluth 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Luke Gillund – Jack Kons Bemidji State University 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Wesley Griner – Justin Sisavath University of Georgia 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Spencer Guthrie – Ryan Kennedy Kennesaw State University 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Josh Hart – Ben Dominque Clemson University 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Cantley Krafft – Ethan Morrison Virginia Tech 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Jonathan Linder – Dallas Baptist University 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Harbor Lovin – Evan Bramhill Murray State University 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Johnathan Peck – Griffin Heffington Bryan College 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Sloan Pennington – Hunter McCarty U. of North Alabama 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Dalton Price – Bryan College 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Brian Volkernick – University of Maine 0 0 0- 0 0.00
117 Rickey Wood Jr – Coastal Carolina 0 0 0- 0 0.00

BIG BASS
Day Name City,State Lbs-Oz
1 JP Kimbrough – Ryan Antee Bossier City, LA 5- 9
2 Zeke Gossett – Hayden Bartee Cropwell, AL 6- 3
3 Bradley Dunagan – Nick Ratliff Monticello, KY ff 6- 0