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On to State

BEA boys win their fourth consecutive Section championship

By Kevin Mertens - Staff Writer | Jun 13, 2021

These young men won the Section 2AA Golf Meet and qualified as a team for the State Golf Tournament. They are, left to right, Ashton Lloyd, Nate Murphy, Braden Gudahl (holding trophy), Manning Lane (in back), Max Ehrich and Gavin Storbeck. The State Meet begins on Tuesday, June 15, at the Ridges at Sand Creek.

The only thing that has stopped the Blue Earth Area boys golf team from reaching the State Golf tournament in the last five years has been COVID-19. With the coronavirus not an issue (at least for now) the BEA boys drove, chipped and putted their way to another Section 2AA championship at the New Prague Golf Club last Tuesday, June 8.

BEA held a 16-stroke lead over second-place St. Peter heading into the final round of the 36-hole event. The Bucs increased that lead to 19 strokes and finished in first place with a team score of 605. St. Peter held on to second place with a score of 624. Holy Family Catholic was third with 628 and Glencoe-Silver Lake was fourth with 649.

The Bucs now move on to compete at the Class AA State Meet at the Ridges at Sand Creek located in Jordan. Play begins on Tuesday, June 15.

“One thing is for certain, winning never gets old,” BEA boys golf coach Travis Armstrong remarked. “But with this crew, the camaraderie is more special.”

BEA claimed the top three individual spots in the competition.

Manning Lane followed up a first round score of 72 with a 37-38-75 to claim medalist honors for the meet. Lane recorded 13 pars and one birdie to claim the top spot in the meet.

“Manning, as well as the whole team, did a great job of avoiding double bogeys,”Armstrong said. “In 144 holes we only had one score higher than bogey in the whole tournament.”

Ashton Lloyd had three birdies and 10 pars on his way to a second-round score of 37-39-76. Lloyd had a first round score of 74 for a total of 150 for the tournament and second place.

Finishing in third place was Braden Gudahl who followed up his first round score of 76 by carding a 35-40-75 in the final round.

Gudahl parred nine holes and had three birdies.

Contributing the last score to the team total was Gavin Storbeck. After shooting a 79 in the first round, Storbeck shot a 38-40-78 in the final round to finish with a total of 157 and in a tie for 14th place.

“It helps when you know your five teammates are playing well,” Armstrong shared. “In that scenario a guy can play relaxed and not force anything.”

Max Ehrich shot a 40-39-79 during the second round to match his first-round score and give him a two-day total of 158. Ehrich had 11 pars to finish one stroke behind Storbeck.

Nathan Murphy shaved eight strokes off of his first round score to card a 43-43-86. Murphy recorded seven pars during the day.

“Their competitive nature can get in the way sometimes, but this week the guys fed off of each other’s success,” Armstrong commented. “They were glad their teammates were playing well, but they also wanted to be in our top four.”