DRIVE TIME — Blue Earth Area golfer Braden Gudahl watches his fairway drive during opening-round action in Tuesday’s Class AA state tournament at Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan. Gudahl went on to share third place overall on the day. (Photo by Greg Abel)

JORDAN — The Blue Earth Area Bucs shot a first-round 312 for fourth place as a team at the Class AA state golf tournament Tuesday at Ridges at Sand Creek Golf Club in Jordan.

Cloquet leads the team standings after the first round with a total of 300, while Totino-Grace shot a 305 for second and Delano totaled a 308 for third.

The Bucs will stay in the top team group in today’s second round, teeing off on the first hole at noon.

Pine Island/Zumbrota-Mazeppa and Staples-Motley each shot a 314, leaving the top six squads all within 14 strokes.

Braden Gudahl led the Bucs with five birdies and eight pars to build his 37-36-73. From Nos. 4 through 12, Gudahl did not shoot over par. He birdied Nos. 7, 8, 10 and 11, while sinking par putts on Nos. 4, 5, 6, 9 and 12 during the run.

Gudahl complemented the run with a birdie on No. 17 and pars on Nos. 16 and 18 to finish his day strong. His performance placed him in a tie for third overall.

“You can see it with a lot of the kids golfing today, that first hole guys were hitting uncharacteristic shots,” BEA head coach Travis Armstrong said. “At this course, if you survive the first six holes, there are some gettable holes after that. That’s what Braden did. He started as poorly as he probably could, then got a birdie run going and did fine. The moral of the story, get off that first tee and get the jitters out.”

Ashton Lloyd hit matching nine-hole rounds of 39 to build his Day 1 total of 78. Lloyd connected for a birdie on No. 17 to complement 10 pars throughout the day.

Manning Lane carded birdies on Nos. 7 and 8, then parred hole No. 9, to finish his front nine strong and help build a 40-39-79. Lane added eight more pars throughout Day 1.

Gavin Storbeck holed three birdie putts on the way to a round of 40-42-82, connecting on hole Nos. 1, 7 and 18 for birdies, while carding six pars.

“We didn’t shoot a bad number, 312 is good, especially up here,” Armstrong said. “I think all the guys think they can improve three or four shots tomorrow. It’s a good start, we’re within striking distance, maybe not for first, but we’re looking to get on the podium.”

Nathan Murphy carded five pars on the way to a 45-42-88, while Max Ehrich connected on three pars to build his 48-49-97.

“We finished strong, we played seven, eight and nine pretty well,” Armstrong said. ” … Hopefully we can put a complete round together tomorrow and maybe if we come in at 305 or something, maybe Cloquet comes back to us.”

In the individual portion of the Class AA Meet, Fairmont’s Brock Lutterman recorded birdies on holes 12 and 15 to complement nine pars on his way to building a 38-41-79.

“It was another example of (Lutterman) grinding through a round where things didn’t necessarily go his way,” Fairmont assistant coach Ryan Stevens said. “He easily could have packed it in after hole 13, where he picked up his second double-bogey through four holes, but he grinded it out and had a respectable round.

“After he doubled his second hole, he was presented with a difficult approach shot on hole 12, then he hit a miraculous shot, which had no room for error, and put himself in tap-in range for birdie.”

Lutterman ended Day 1 in a seven-way tie for 32nd place as an individual. Class AA individuals start teeing off at 12:54 p.m. today.

During Class A state action at Pebble Creek Golf Club in Becker, Martin County West freshman Hunter Schmidt ended Day 1 in a tie for 38th.

Schmidt birdied the par-5 fifth hole, to complement eight pars on hole Nos. 1, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12 and 15.

Individuals in the Class A meet will begin teeing off at 12:54 p.m. today.

Class AA Boys Golf State Meet

(Results courtesy of iwanamaker.com)

Team Standings: 1. Cloquet 300; 2. Totino-Grace 305; 3. Delano 308; 4. Blue Earth Area 312; 5. (tie) Pine Island/Zumbrota-Mazeppa and Staples-Motley 314s; 7. Roseau 326; 8. New London-Spicer 340.

Individual Results (Top 10): 1. Sam Baker (Cloquet) 68; 2. Beck Erholtz (Staples-Motley) 71; 3. (tie) Braden Gudahl (Blue Earth Area) and Joseph Scripture (Pine Island/Zumbrota-Mazeppa) 73s; 5. Peyton Savageau (Totino-Grace) 74; 6. (tie) Anders Larson (Pine Island/ Zumbrota-Mazeppa), Trevor Oja (Delano), Mitch Krebsbach (Mound Westonka) and Sam Udovich (St. Croix Lutheran) 75s; 10. (tie) Jake Oja (Delano), Charlie Hanson (Morris Area), Riley Schuth (Glencoe-Silver Lake), Karson Young (Cloquet), Jacob Walsh (Cloquet), Adam Tonsfeldt (Barnesville), Peyton Coahran (New London-Spicer) and Luke Ashbrook (Kimball Area) 76s.