Katelyn Storbeck, left, and Payten Gudahl, right, both qualified for the Minnesota Class AA State Golf Tournament to be held at Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan. Play begins for the girls on June 11.

Like mother, like daughter.

It was 28 years ago, in 1996, that Blue Earth Area senior Shanna Gudahl won medalist honors at her Section Golf Meet.

Payten Gudahl, a Buccaneer senior and Shanna’s daughter, pulled off the same feat as her mother on Tuesday afternoon, June 4, when she won the Girls Section 2AA Golf Tournament at the New Prague Golf Club by a three-stroke margin while earning the right to compete in the Minnesota State Golf Tournament.

“The other neat thing about the story is that Al Cue was my coach. He was in his first year as the head golf coach for the girls,” Shanna said. “And now Al coached Payten to her Section championship. It’s kind of cool.”

Assisting Cue in coaching the girls golf team was Payten’s father, Shawn.

The younger Gudahl was not the only Buccaneer to qualify to play at the State Tournament. Katelyn Storbeck will also compete in the State Tournament next week. It will be Gudahl’s third trip to the State Tournament and Storbeck’s second.

The Section 2AA team winner was Holy Family Catholic. All six of the winning team’s girls move on to State along with the five girls who have the best scores and were not on the winning team.

As the medalist, Gudahl had the best score while Storbeck had the fourth best score of someone not on the winning team.

The BEA team began the day trailing Holy Family Catholic by five strokes. Holy Family Catholic had a team total of 344 after the first round and shot a 326 the second round to finish with a 36-hole total of 670.

Meanwhile, the Bucs followed up their first-round score of 349 with a 354 to give them a total of 703 which put them in second place. Southwest Christian placed third with a total score of 708 and Jordan was fourth with 744.

“We had a great season and finished with a 65-2 record. Our only losses were to Byron and Holy Family Catholic,” Cue said. “We were the New Ulm Invite champs, the Big South Conference champs, the NRHEG champs and we finished second in the Section.”

Cue continued his thoughts, “At the Section meet, we shot our best two 18-hole rounds of the season. We played great, Holy Family Catholic was just better.”

Gudahl began the second round in second place, four strokes behind first-round leader Kendall Hoag of Southwest Christian.

But, while Hoag followed up her opening round score of 76 with a second-round score of 82 to finish with a 158 total, Gudahl carded a 75 in her second round to go with her first-round score of 80 for a total of 155 and a three-stroke victory over Hoag and Easton Cizek of Holy Family Catholic.

“Payten really played outstanding,” Cue commented. “Her 80-75-155 is the lowest 36-hole total that any girl has had during my coaching tenure. She constantly works to improve her game. She has certainly earned her third trip to State.”

Gudahl started her second round on the back nine on hole No. 10. She parred that hole but ran into trouble on hole No. 11 and finished with a triple bogie. She rebounded and achieved pars on the next five holes before carding a bogey on hole No. 17. She finished with a par on the 18th hole for a four-over-par score of 39 with nine holes left to play.

Gudahl parred hole Nos. 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 and had bogies on the first, third and ninth holes to finish with a three-over-par score of 36 on the front nine and an 18-hole total of 75.

Storbeck shot an 86 in the first round and an 83 in the final round to end up with a two-day total of 169 which put her in seventh place overall.

Storbeck parred hole Nos. 4, 7, 9, 15 and 18 during the final round of the two-day tournament.

“It’s great to see Katelyn get back to State for the second time,” Cue said. “She has worked so hard on her game, so I am very happy for her.”

Rylan Storbeck shot an 89-96-185 to finish 15th in her final high school golf outing.

Madison Ehrich finished in 22nd place after firing a 94-100-194, McKinley Hanson was 27th after shooting a 110-101-211 and Lola Lundquist was 29th after carding a 109-113-222.

While the BEA team finished in the runner-up position on the course, they finished first in the classroom and were named the Section 2AA Academic Team Champions.

The Class 2AA State Tournament for both the boys and girls gets underway on Tuesday, June 11, at Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan.

Tee-off time for the boys is 7:30 a.m. The girls begin play at 12 p.m.

Boys Results

BEA junior Eli Blagg was the only Buc golfer to qualify to play the second day in the boys Section 2AA Championship Tournament.

Blagg shot a first-round total of 76 and finished with a 42-42-84 in his final round for a total of 160 which put him in 24th place.

Holy Family Catholic won the team portion of the tournament with a score of 556 which was 31 strokes better than runner-up St. Peter.

The Section 2AA medalist was Tully Super from Holy Family Catholic. He had a 36-hole total of 137. Holy Family Catholic golfers occupied six of the top eight places.