THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, May 29, 2015

College freshmen around the Inland Northwest are busy studying, visiting family and friends and making new friends.

Laj Tripp, a 2014 Coeur d'Alene High grad and former Vikings basketball guard, has done at least some of these things and from April 30 to May 2, the Eastern Washington University 19-year-old freshman teamed up with EWU sophomore Kyle Sittman to catch a three-day total of 33 pounds, 15 ounces worth of fish, mostly largemouth bass. That weight was enough to win the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Western Regional at Folsom Reservoir in Sacramento, Calif. They won by 15 ounces, beating a team from Chico State University. A cool $2,000 was awarded to them, but it went to the Eagle Fishing Club at EWU, formerly known as the EWU Sportsman's Club, so Tripp and others can do what they do.

Tripp and Sittman also beat out several schools who competed in the waters, such as Humboldt State, Cal Poly, Sacramento State, Oregon State and Oregon. An ESPNU cameraman was on Tripp and Sittman's boat and they told the two it will be broadcast likely on a Sunday morning in June, though they do not know exactly when.

After Tripp lost a 4-pound fish earlier on May 2, Tripp and Sittman more or less pulled off the fishing equivalent of a buzzer-beater. They caught a bass that weighed 2 ? pounds.

"We caught a bedfish (bedding bass) with five minutes before the tournament ended," Tripp said. "On the last day we were in second place, we were seven ounces behind Chico State (in Chico, Calif.). So we fished deep, we needed one more fish. They only bite out of aggression. I tried what seemed like 100 times to catch it, but it never bit it (my bait). I was fishing on a drop shot. It's a carbon leader with a 6-inch hook and a half-ounce weight. It's where the bait is off the ground and in the striking zone. It was a miracle story, we caught it the last five minutes and it won us the tournament."

Tripp had a somewhat humorous story earlier in the tournament.

"On the first day, I caught a 5-pound fish," Tripp said. "I came back, then I caught her back, I caught the male and the female. It was pretty funny."

And the aftermath was a thrill for them as they got to stay in a house rented by Brandon Palaniuk, a professional Bassmaster fisher who is from Rathdrum, and was a former standout wrestler at Lakeland High and North Idaho College.

"We weighed in at a Bassmaster event in Discovery Park in Sacramento," Tripp said. "It was the best experience ever."

Tripp was the leader of his team.

"I was the boater," Tripp said. "I'm more like the guy at the head of the water who put the line in. He (Sittman) helped me net, I made split decisions. He's a little newer at it."

NOW THE two, along with the top 10 out of 20 teams from the Western Regional, are headed to the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series National Championship, scheduled from July 9-11 at Lake DuBay in Wisconsin, two hours north of Madison. Ninety teams will compete and the top five teams that catch the heaviest cumulative five-bass daily limit will advance to the third and final day.

The top college angler in the Classic bracket competition earns an invitation to compete with the world's top professional bass fishermen in the 2016 Bassmaster Classic on Grand Lake near Tulsa, Okla.

"I'm guessing it'll take 36 to 38 pounds or more to win," Tripp said. "It's on a body of water that has little (tournaments) done on it. I'm leaving a week prior to that. If you win, they give you $70,000 and you get to keep that. Then whoever wins that Bassmaster Classic wins $300,000."

TRIPP STARTED competing in fish tournaments when he was 12, when his father, Jeremy Tripp, taught him how to fish. Jeremy Tripp also helped teach Palaniuk how to fish when he was younger. In May 21, he finished 27th out of 60 at the Noxon (Mont.) Reservoir in the Fishing League Worldwide Federation. Noxon is located 109 miles northeast of Coeur d'Alene. He had quite a few injuries playing varsity basketball from his sophomore through his senior seasons, so he chose to stick with competitive fishing.

"I've logged more than 10,000 boat miles," Tripp said. "I competed in youth tournaments around the area. I finished fourth at Lake Havasu (Ariz.) this February."

Tripp chose to attend Eastern Washington for the same reasons a lot of local kids go to the school in Cheney. He's also a business marketing major and would like to work in the fishing industry. The fishing club has fundraisers such as raffles at fishing shows that the university matches.

"I chose it because of how successful their program is and how it was closer to my home, so I can still fish my home waters."

And now he can take a shot at a college national title, pretty far away from home.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, via e-mail at [email protected] or via Twitter @bourq25