| Rank | Best Cast | Name | Warmup | Cast 1 | Cast 2 | Cast 3 | Casting Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 96'3" | Jamie Lyle | scored | 96'3" | 86' | X | 4 |
| 2 | 96' | Tom Hyde | scored | 90'3" | 96' | X | 1 |
| 3 | 94'10" | Matt Heron | X | 94'10" | 94' | X | 11 |
| 4 | 93'6" | Jeff Currier | 90' | 92'7" | X | 93'6" | 7 |
| 5 | 92' | Todd Caoitri | X | 81'8" | 82'9" | 92' | 13 |
| 6 | 91'6" | Alex Cody | 85'10" | 91'6" | X | X | 3 |
| 7 | 91'4" | Chris Arbulich | X | 91'4" | OB | 88'8" | 8 |
| 8 | 91' | Kevin Price | X | 86'8" | 91' | X | 10 |
| 9 | 90'9" | Rick Rogers | 87'6" | 83'5" | 90'9" | OB | 2 |
| 10 | 90'3" | Floyd Dean | 87'5" | 90'3" | 80'5" | X | 9 |
| 11 | 84'6" | Jason Lozano | X | X | 84'6" | X | 6 |
| 12 | 77'4" | John Sherman | X | 72'4" | 77'4" | X | 12 |
| 13 | 74'1" | Greg Nault | OB | OB | 74'1" | OB | 5 |
| - | 100'5" | Brian O'Keefe | - | 91' | 100'5" | X | Exhibition |
I managed to film the Best of the West casting competition on the Sacramento finals Sunday. Held indoors at CalExpo, the hall is a little short with a barricade and wall at 75' limiting the backcast. The 10' wide casting pool cut right through the middle of the hall with the 100' mark just short of the main doors. Three casts could be scored casts in a three minute period. A first warm-up/practice cast could be scored or discarded. Laying the backcast down to abort and restart was permitted. Air currents and cold air coming in through the entry doors definitely affected the casts and a lot of casts didn't turn over.
Though I was only there Sunday, there were 2 qualifying sessions each previous day to get a clean 90' cast. There was a single qualifier on Sunday morning with the finals in the afternoon. Several used multiple opportunities to qualify. In my first contest, I was a bit nervous and dumped my practice cast, piled the first, a good second cast went OB left, then piled the 3rd failing to qualify. 16 qualified during the show with 3 were no-shows for the finals, leaving 13.
Jamie Lyle, the regional Sage go to guy and MCI from Truckee, got 1st with 96'3" over Tom Hyde with 96' even. Brian O'Keefe jumped in and threw the only one out of the pool reaching 100'4" but wasn't eligible after winning in San Mateo. Congrats Jaime!
Jan '08 Eric