BLOOMING PRAIRIE — Last year the Blooming Prairie boys golfers couldn’t field a full team. This year they’re headed to the Class A state meet for the first time in school history.

BP broke through with a historic day as it tallied a team score 321 at the Section 1A finals in Willow Creek golf course in Rochester Tuesday. BP finished with a two-day score of 657 to edge out Lewiston-Altura, which finished with a 663. The Cardinals had led BP by five strokes headed into Tuesday.

“I was just trying to beat the kid I was against from Lewiston by five or at least stay with him,” said BP sophomore Lucas Noble, who shot a season’s best score of 77 on Tuesday. ‘“That worked.”

Noble and Ethan Strunk both took on golfing with the Awesome Blossoms for the first time this year and they helped out immediately with a squad that has plenty of talent. Tommy Braaten, who had a total score of 153, won Section 1A meet medalist honors, Jake Ressler shot a season’s best score of 84 and Strunk shot a 100.

“Making it to state was one our biggest goals at the start of the season. We kind of knew we were a good team going in,” Hatch said. “After the first nine holes [today], we all kind of knew we would have a chance.”

The BP golfers are competitive with each other in practice as Noble joked that they “always want to beat Tommy,” but they are also close friends as well.

BP co-head coach Carl Peterson said the team is dedicated to golf and it’s been fun for him to watch them grow this season.

“These boys have played more golf than any team I’ve ever been associated with,” Peterson said. “We gave them the day off one day because it was rainy and nasty and I drove past the golf course and they were out there playing. They did a great job of keeping each other going in practices.”

For Braaten, a junior, this will be his second time competing at the Class A state meet. He’s looking forward to competing with his teammates this time around.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun. I didn’t even know we were the first ones [to go to state] until after we talked about it,” Braaten said. “Last year we didn’t even have a team and now we’re going to the state tournament.”

In the girls meet, BP junior Taylor Christianson clinched her third straight trip to the Class A state meet. Christianson shot a 78 Tuesday and her two-day total of 156 put her in second place overall.

“It gets more challenging to keep the same mental strength as I had the first time [I went to state] and I have to challenge myself,” Christianson said. “There were only a few holes where I broke down a little bit, but otherwise it went really well.”

The Class A state golf meet is June 14-15 in Pebble Creek in Becker.

BOYS

Teams: 1. Blooming Prairie 657; 2. Lewiston-Altura 663; 3. Rushord-Peterson 681; 4. Caledonia 694

BP scoring: Lucas Noble, 77; Jon Hatch, 80; Tommy Braaten, 80; Jake Ressler, 84; Ethan Strunk, 100

Hayfield scoring: Andy Pike, 82; Jackson Heyd, 92; Grant Vikre, 95; Lane Canny, 101

GMLO scoring: Mark Cotton, 97; Tanner Boelter, 110; Justin Krum, 112

GIRLS

BP scoring: Taylor Christianson, 78; Jessica Ressler, 106

Southland: Hannah Begene, 133; Laura Bottema, 134; Erin Hanson, 138; Kylie Poshusta, 156

GMLO scoring: GMLO: Brena Winfield, 120