FOCUSED — Blue Earth Area’s Braden Gudahl (left) chats with Buc head coach Travis Armstrong during Saturday’s Cardinal Invitational at Interlaken Golf Course in Fairmont. Gudahl went on to win the individual crown and led the Bucs to the team championship. (Photo by Greg Abel)

FAIRMONT — The Bucs claimed the top two individual spots, while two Cardinals finished in the top 10.

The Blue Earth Area Bucs’ boys golfers (312) took first place as a team, while the Fairmont Cardinals (337) finished fourth and the North Union Warriors (395) finished ninth during the Cardinal Invitational on Saturday at Interlaken Golf Course in Fairmont.

BEA’s Braden Gudahl shot the medalist score of 74 from the pro tees, while Manning Lane shot a 77 for a tie in the runner-up spot with Minnewaska’s Cole Harste and St. Peter’s Kendall Nicolai.

Gudahl sank four birdies to garner his score, including the par-4 eighth, 12th and 14th holes and the par-5 17th, while Lane hit birdies on the par-5 second hole and par-4 14th.

The Bucs’ Ashton Lloyd drove the fringe of the green on the par-4 ninth hole, then putted within 6 feet to set up a birdie, helping complete his fifth-place score of 79.

“Braden was solid all day, he made a couple of birdies on the way out,” BEA head coach Travis Armstrong said. “He had a couple of bogeys and some guys can get a little down after that, but he was able to right the ship. Max Ehrich had a nice long stretch of pars. He scuffled a little bit early and was disappointed, but he just started making par after par, and for your number five or six man to do that, it’s huge. We ended up using his score and that was very helpful.”

The string of pars came on holes 5 through 9 for Ehrich, helping lead to his seventh-place tying score of 82 for the Bucs’ final counting score.

Alexander Moeller shot a sixth-place score of 81 to lead Fairmont, while sinking pars on the par-3 third hole and par-4 ninth, while sinking an eagle on the par-5 17th. Jacob Harris then tied for ninth for Fairmont with a score of 83 off the strength of 10 pars.

Mathew Cone finished 16th with his score of 85, while Brock Lutterman shot an 88 for Fairmont’s final counting score for a tie at 23rd.

Alec Reutzel added a 30th-place total of 91 for Fairmont, while Hartley Aust finished 32nd at 92.

“I think we played really well,” Fairmont assistant coach Ryan Stevens said.

“It was another one of those days where we started out with a rough patch of holes out the gate, but … we bunkered down, that’s when we started grinding,” Stevens continued. “I’m confident in their ability to play well, this is just one of those instances where I think we were pretty excited to come out and put a good number together and got a little ahead of ourselves. I like how we’re maturing through the season, our bad holes aren’t affecting the rest of the round. … I’m excited and looking forward to when we get toward the end of the season.”

Gavin Storbeck added a 12th-place score of 84 for the Bucs, while Nathan Murphy tied for 30th at 91.

“I’m a little afraid with the new app for scoring, I think some of our guys were scoreboard watching and it affected play a little bit,” Armstrong said. ” … We had some hiccups but we came back from them. I think we shot 312, that’s a pretty good number playing from the back tees.”

Parker Eichenberger led the Warriors with an 18-hole score of 94 to tie for 36th, while Teagon Fothergill tied for 39th at 96. Gage Madden finished in a tie for 45th with his score of 99 and Michael Hanson and Nick Schiltz both tied for 49th at 106 for the final Warriors’ counting score. Chase Cummins added a 107 for the Warriors.

Fairmont, Blue Earth Area and St. Peter compete against Jackson County Central, New Ulm Waseca in New Ulm at 2 p.m. today.

North Union plays host to Lake Mills and North Iowa at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Country Greens Golf Course in Armstrong.

2021 Cardinal Boys Golf Invite

(Results courtesy of iwanamaker.com)

Team Standings: 1. Blue Earth Area 312; 2. Minnewaska Area 326; 3. St. Peter 331; 4. Fairmont 337; 5. Marshall 354; 6. Jackson County Central 355; 7. Windom Area 375; 8. Worthington 383; 9. North Union 395; 10. Pipestone Area 403.

Individual Results (Top 10): 1. Braden Gudahl (BEA) 74; 2. (tie) Manning Lane (BEA), Cole Harste (Minnewaska) and Kendall Nicolai (St. Peter) 77s; 5. Ashton Lloyd (BEA) 79; 6. Alexander Moeller (Fairmont) 81; 7. (tie) Max Ehrich (BEA) and Mason McGinty (Minnewaska) 82s; 9. (tie) Jacob Harris (Fairmont), Kaiden Brovold (St. Peter) and Riley Larson (Minnewaska) 83s.

Other Fairmont scores: T16. Mathew Cone 85; T23. Brock Lutterman 88; T30. Alec Reutzel 91; T32. Hartley Aust 92. Other B.E. Area scores: T12. Gavin Storbeck 84; T30. Nathan Murphy 91. North Union scores: T36. Parker Eichenberger 94; T39. Teagon Fothergill 96; T45. Gage Madden 99; T49. Michael Hanson and Nick Schiltz 106s; 52. Chase Cummins 107.