Hunter Spencer watches his tee shot during a recent golf match. Spencer and his fellow Buc teammates led the Section Meet after the first day of action.

The weather was hot and so were the scores of the members of the Blue Earth Area Buccaneer boys golf team.

The Bucs held onto first place in the Section 2AA Golf Tournament after Day One of competition on Friday, May 25 held at the New Prague Country Club.

The Blue Earth Area boys scored a team total of 321, which put them six strokes ahead of second place St. Peter.

In third place was Maple River and Albert Lea, tied at 338 each.

All four teams will advance to Day Two of the Section 2AA Tournament, which is back at the New Prague course on this Monday, June 4.

Topping the list for BEA as well as all of the players in the 14 teams competing in the tournament, is Manning Lane who came in with a 73 (37-36) which gave him sole possession of the No. 1 spot, three strokes ahead of Andrew Hoppe of Maple River.

“Manning carried over his momentum from the conference tournament into section play,” Buc coach Travis Armstrong says. “His score of 73 included three birdies.”

Hunter Spencer shot a score of 80 (37-43) which put him in a tie for seventh place.

“Hunter was disappointed with his last nine holes, but the front nine proves he is capable of going low, as well,” Armstrong says.

Also counting towards the team’s 321 total were Braden Gudahl (43-41) and Gaven Bruellman (45-39) who each shot identical scores of 84, putting them in a three-way tie for 15th place.

“Each of them started slower than they wanted, but ground out solid back nines to keep the team in first place by six shots,” Armstrong says.

Rounding out the varsity scoring for BEA were Ashton Lloyd with a 93 for 31st place, and Caleb Beeler who had an even 100 at 35th place.

“At 321 we are basically right on our season average,” coach Armstrong comments. “St. Peter trails us by six at 327 and Maple River and Albert Lea are tied at 338 behind them. If we can shoot 320 on Monday that will force St. Peter to shoot 313, 14 shots better than day one, to beat us.”

Besides all of the varsity players from the four teams that advanced to Day Two of the tournament, 14 other individuals not from the top four teams made the cut (a score of 88 or lower) for the second and final round of the tourney to decide who goes on to the State Golf Tournament.