SLIPPERY ROCK — Football and track and field have proven to be dominant sports at Slippery Rock University.

Add fishing to that list.

The SRU fishing team had three duos place among the top 10 at the FLW College Fishing Northern Conference event Saturday on the Potomac River in Maryland. That includes Logan Pollman of Slippery Rock and Tyler Sheppard of Hermitage, who finished first overall.

The two snared the $2,000 first prize by weighing in five bass at a total of 18 pounds, one ounce. Joel Hixon of Butler and Evan Kretz of Pittsburgh finished sixth at 15 pounds, 15 ounces while The Rock’s Ryan Kozlowski and Nathan Quince, both of Pittsburgh, were 10th at 15 pounds, 7 ounces.

The top 10 duos advance to the 2017 FLW College Fishing National Championship. Details on that event have yet to be announced.

“This is the first time our school has ever won this,” Pollman said. “For a small school like us to do this well ... We’re very proud.”

There were approximately 60 schools competing in the Northern Conference event, including the University of Maine, Pitt, Penn State, Ohio State, West Virginia, Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth. SRU was one of the smallest schools in the field.

“The FLW used to supply boats to fish on, but now you need to supply your own,” Hixon said. “We paired off based on who you’re most comfortable fishing with and who has the boats.

“You can catch as many bass as you want, but you weigh in the biggest five and the minimum length of the fish has to be 15 inches.”

Hixon estimates he and Kretz caught 36 bass. Pollman said he and Sheppard caught 20.

“We didn’t get a huge total, but this was about quality fish and we got plenty of those,” Pollman said.

The fishing began at 6:30 a.m. Saturday and weigh-ins took place at 2:30 p.m.

Pollman and Sheppard have been with the SRU team for three years. Both are seniors. Hixon is in his second year with the program, which has existed for five years.

“I’ve been fishing competitively since I was a freshman in high school,” Sheppard said. “It’s awesome that FLW has a college league like this to allow us to compete with each other.

“Events like this enable college anglers to get together.”

Saturday’s event marked the second of three qualifying tournaments in the Northern conference. The final one will be July 23 on Chautauqua Lake in New York.

College fishing events are free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time students at a college, university or community college and members of a college fishing club.

“My dad got me into fishing when I was little,” Hixon said. “I never knew Slippery Rock had a team. I was watching an FLW fishing event on television and saw Slippery Rock was involved.

“To be honest, that’s one of the original reasons I went to SRU,” the senior business management major added.

Pollman learned about the team because he happened to have a Bass Federation sticker on his car at school.

“A guy on the team noticed that sticker and approached me about the team,” Pollman said.

When Pollman joined the SRU fishing squad three years ago, there were six on the team. Now the roster includes roughly 18.

“We had a great tournament,” Hixon said. “We represented our school well.”

There were 52 2-person teams in the field. SRU duos of Cody Neal and Kyle Brown, Jeff Henderson and Matt Kaercher finished 37th and 44th, respectively.