STATE-BOUND GOLFERS — Members of the Section 2 champion Blue Earth Area Buc boys golf lineup competing in the Class AA state meet Tuesday and Wednesday at Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan include, from left: Ashton Lloyd, Nathan Murphy, Manning Lane, Braden Gudahl (with trophy), Max Ehrich and Gavin Storbeck. (Photo by Greg Abel)

JORDAN — Eighth, fifth, fifth. Now Blue Earth Area is on the hunt for a championship.

For the fourth time in five years, only missing the 2020 tournament because it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bucs are headed to Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan for the Class AA state golf meet.

Blue Earth Area finished eighth in the 2017 state meet with a team score of 666, then improved its total with the same crew to 627 for a fifth-place finish in 2018. Two of this year’s seniors, Braden Gudahl and Manning Lane, helped power the Bucs to a 654 total for fifth in 2019.

Along with Gudahl and Lane, Ashton Lloyd enters with multiple years of experience at the state tournament.

Lane, Lloyd and Gudahl took the top three spots in the Section 2 tournament at New Prague Golf Club on Tuesday to power the Bucs to their state team appearance.

“You’ve got some guys that have been there multiple times, they’ve been through the staying in a hotel and playing a practice round and, you know, kind of buttoning things up the first night, so you can play well the second night. I think with our senior leadership, that should help a ton,” BEA head coach Travis Armstrong said. “With that kind of experience, we won’t get wrapped up in the fact that we’re at the state tournament. There’s always going to be those first jitters, but I think those senior leaders should be able to get some of the guys that it’s a new experience for to calm down and be ready to go.”

Senior Max Ehrich recorded the Bucs’ fifth score during the 2019 tournament and Nathan Murphy has played for the Bucs at multiple tournaments.

Senior Gavin Storbeck comes in as the lone BEA team member with no state golf experience, after playing baseball the past few springs.

Armstrong said he believes this year’s Buc team might be the most talented he’s brought to the tournament.

The team will be the first in the past four tournaments to tee off in the top group of teams, starting their run of tee times at noon Tuesday and leaving from the first hole. BEA is grouped with Delano, Totino-Grace and New London-Spicer.

The Bucs enter tied for the second-best qualifying score at sections with their team total of 605, tied with New London-Spicer and behind only Delano’s 599, but Armstrong said those numbers might be more misleading than normal.

“We’re basing our expectations on their scores from other courses that we weren’t there and conditions that we weren’t playing,” Armstrong said. “And so you just never know how good scores are, or how hard a course was playing. When you see scores like, for example, Cloquet, they had a rough first day at sections, where they played a tough golf course, I’ve played that one. And they shot a 330 or something, which is high. But then they came back the next day, and were in the low 300s.

“So, you know, just because you’re not there, we just don’t really have a good gauge as to how good everybody else is. But I know how good we are.”

Armstrong said he knows the strength of the Bucs’ team comes from their depth. Although Lane, Lloyd and Gudahl took the top three spots at the section meet, Armstrong said their abilities to keep scores close together will prove more critical than their ability to take a medalist or runner-up score.

“A lot of people ask me, ‘who is your best golfer?’ And I don’t have a best golfer,” Armstrong said. “It could be any one of five guys who gives you our lowest score for the day. It’s just for the last two weeks, we all put it together on the same day. … you have the four seniors but we also have a sophomore who has put together some nice rounds in a row here.

“So I’m just looking forward to, to showing off our depth at the state tournament and maybe not having the lowest guy, but having that strongest team because we’ve got five, actually six really good players.”

Tee times and starting hole for Wednesday’s second round will be determined on Tuesday’s round.

•

Two area individual golfers will hit the state course, one in Class AA and one in Class A.

Fairmont’s Brock Lutterman will hit the Ridges at Sand Creek course, teeing off of the 10th hole at 1:12 p.m. Tuesday.

Lutterman will match up with Hill-Murray’s Owen McDonnell, Marshall School of Duluth’s Tucker D’Allaird and Stewartville’s Caleb Jannsen on Day 1.

Martin County West’s Hunter Schmidt will hit the tee box on No. 1 at Pebble Creek Golf Club in Becker at 1:03 p.m. Tuesday.

Schmidt will spend Day 1 of the tournament paired with Kittson County Central’s Tyler Hennen, Bethlehem Academy’s Brayden Larson and Lac qui Parle Valley’s Carson Besonen.

Pairings, tee times and locations for Day 2 will be determined following Day 1’s action.