WAGONER, OKLA. — Catawba Valley Community College bass fishing anglers Nathan Dellinger and Spencer Black competed this week at the Abu Garcia College Fishing National Championship on Fort Gibson Lake in Oklahoma.

Dellinger and Black finished the event with 11 pounds, six ounces of bass — finishing 63rd out of 178 boats.

Red Hawk bass fishing head coach Angela Mayo is proud of how Dellinger and Black did despite the quick turnaround between tournaments.

"Our guys did not have a lot of practice time for this tournament," Mayo said. "They left from the weigh in at Lake Norman and drove straight to Oklahoma. It's tough to figure a lake out with only one day of practice. I was impressed with and proud of Spencer and Nathan for keeping their heads in it and making such a strong comeback on day two."

The Red Hawk duo of Black and Dellinger had a tough first day of competition on Tuesday, catching no fish after battling high winds and rough waters which made for difficult fishing conditions.

"I really was not expecting the fishing to be this tough, but it is Oklahoma and the state is still in a winter time pattern," Dellinger said. "We only had one day of practice and didn't really figure anything out. Day one was horrible conditions — winds at 25 miles per hour sustained made it tough to make a cast. The lake fished really small with 178 boats and 75 percent of them wanted to fish the same type of water as us."

After coming up empty during the first day of competition, Dellinger and Black fishing through thunderstorms and heavy rains from the night before and put their heads down to catch four fish on the final day.

"It was an amazing experience to be able to fish the Major League Fishing National Championship," Black said. "The first day didn't go the way we hoped for, but the second we figured a little something out and managed to catch four nice bass."

Dellinger said a small change in strategy was the biggest difference for he and Black on day two.

"We decided to dedicate the day to fishing extremely slow," Dellinger said. Given the conditions and the circumstances in which we faced, I am happy with the finish, but we could have possibly done a lot better. It was a great accomplishment just making it to the National Championship."

Dellinger, Black and the Catawba Valley Community College bass fishing team return to the water next weekend for an appearance at the Barnett Reservoir Rumble in Ridgeland, Miss.