Chester fishing wins first-ever tournament
<span>SPARTA -- Competing in its first tournament, the Chester High School bass fishing team came home with some hardware.</span>
<span>Chester's team led by Derek Mott finished in first place with 10.5 pounds, and its other team led by Mason Westerman finished runner-up with 8.9 pounds as the Yellow Jackets won a four-school tournament on Saturday at the Randolph County Rod and Gun Club.</span>
<span>Sparta, Red Bud and Waterloo were the other schools in the tournament.</span>
<span>"A lot of these kids haven't fished much at all," said Chester co-coach Joe Crain. "This is the first tournament that all of them have fished and actually the first time I've fished with them this year.</span>
<span>"They struggled the first 10 minutes of the day, but these boys catch on quick."</span>
<span>The Red Bud team led by Austin White finished third with 5.4 pounds. Westerman also caught the big bass of the day, which weighed in at 3.1 pounds.</span>
<span>"I felt I had success at the very end," Westerman said. "And to never give up, even when you don't think there's a chance."</span>
<span>Westerman said he caught the bass in the last five minutes of the competition.</span>
<span>"I didn't have this in high school," Crain said. "I would have loved to have had it when I was in high school, so for me it's fun that these kids are so interested in it and willing to get up at five in the morning.</span>
<span>"Most high school kids won't do that and they were wide awake and ready to go (Saturday) morning."</span>
<span>Up next for Chester is the IHSA sectional tournament on May 6 at Rend Lake, which is scheduled to occur from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.</span>
<span>Chester is one of 11 schools scheduled to compete, including Randolph County rivals Sparta and Red Bud.</span>
<span>"The top three teams go to the state tournament in Carlyle at the end of May," Crain said. "As far as between now and then, there's nothing scheduled so we'll take them out and practice a little bit and see what happens at Rend Lake."</span>
<span>The IHSA state final tournament is scheduled for May 20-21.</span>