Closing Ceremonies of the 2015 Master National

Flight A had around 16 dogs left to run in their fifth series this Sunday morning and so the Closing Ceremonies were planned for a noon start. Everyone began to gather around the Headquarters Tent in anticipation of the occasion.

Sam Ferguson kicked off the ceremony by welcoming everyone in attendance. He wanted to let everyone know that without their generous donations of the Sponsors associated with this event, it couldn't take place. He listed the Sponsors as follows:

Diamond Sponsor

Nestlé Purina Petcare

Avery Sporting Dog

Gold Sponsors

Pepsico

Garmin

Dogtra

Silver Sponsor

Retriever News
Sportdog

Chris Chantland

Wetmutt

Bruce & Barbara Moore

Duck Dog Clothing Company

Ag Equipment Direct, LLC

Bronze Sponsors

Tangelo Products

Midwest Greyhound Supply

Wealth Management Strategies

Cooper River Retriever Club of South Carolina

Lumber River Retriever Club
Neuse Retriever Club

Flatlands Insurance Group

The audience gave the three clubs hosting this event a standing ovation: Cooper River Retriever Club of South Carolina, Lumber River Retriever Club and Neuse Retriever Club. He presented an engraved Master National plate to each of the event Co-Chairman Michelle Love and Laurice Williams, thanking them for their supreme effort in organizing this event. He also thanked Larry Kimble who was the Chief Marshal of this event.

The Judges lined up in front of the tent and each one received our gratitude for the hours, days and weeks of work for this event as well as a Master National engraved plate.

Flight A:

Robert Rascoe

Tom McMorrow

Flight B:

Dale Langhorne

Ed Sullivan

Flight C:

Carol Hynes

Tellus Calhoun

Flight D:

Martin Bell

Bruce Bachert

Flight E:

Kay Scott

John Kinnard

Sam then proceeded to thank Tina Styan, the "face" of Retriever News, as a Silver Sponsor and friend to the Master National. Sam recognized members of the Board of Directors and thanked them for their service this year. As a final statement, Sam acknowledged owner/handler trainers for their hard work in getting to the 2015 Master National.

Sam turned over the microphone to Frank Barton, Hunt Test Secretary. Frank took the time to thank the veterinarians who tended to the animals in each flight and the audience clapped with appreciation. Frank then listed out the Hall of Fame recipients from each flight starting with the MNH4 and went all the way to MNH8. There was only one dog that reached that level::

Taylorlab Downtown Cooter Brown MH MNH8 QA2  "Coot"
Owned by Lyle and Stephanie Steinman and Handled by Lyle Steinman.

Melissa Shanks then presented women with the Woman's Challenge Trophy. There is a large trophy with all the name's engraved and then each recipient received a smaller one. The gals who received it were Janet Wood, Genie Edwards, Tierra Robinson Sloane and Renee Hager.

Frank Prendergast told the story of the Clayton Crawford Award which was then presented to Bruce Chavis who accepted it on behalf of Butch Driggers for his work in preparing H. Cooper Black Jr. Memorial Field Trial and Recreational Area for this event.

Frank Barton then asked the announcers to come and read the qualifiers names in each flight. Below is a chart with the entered number of dogs in each flight, dogs that started and final qualifying scores:

Flight A:

183 entered / 174 started / 59 qualified

Flight B:

183 entered / 171 started / 68 qualified

Flight C:

183 entered / 178 started / 57 qualified

Flight D:

183 entered / 169 started / 41 qualified

Flight E:

183 entered / 168 started / 47 qualified

Total Qualifiers : 272

Congratulations to Everyone!

… until next year …