Blooming Prairie Boys Golf Earns First State Tournament Trip

After burning up the links at Willow Creek in Rochester, the Blooming Prairie boys golf team was welcomed back to town with a fire truck parade after winning their first section title.

The Awesome Blossoms cut 15 strokes from their team score in the opening round to surge past first-round leader Lewiston-Altura to win the Section 1A title for the first time in school history. Blooming Prairie shot 321 on Tuesday after totaling 336 last week. The 657 total was good for a six-stroke win over L-A's 663. Rushford-Peterson shot 680. Caledonia was fourth with 690.

Two BP golfers had their best round of the season on Tuesday and Tommy Braaten earned the section medalist honors with an 80 to follow up on his 73 for a 153 total. Lucas Noble shot a season-best 77 Tuesday for a two-day score of 164. Jon Hatch shot 80 Tuesday after an 89 last week for a 169 total. Jake Ressler had a season low 84 after a 92 last week for a 176 score. The fifth golfer was Ethan Strunk with 187.

Coach Cory Hendrickson told KRFO radio in an email, "I was incredibly proud of the resiliency of our boys. Lewiston (Altura) has some great golfers and for us to beat them by 11 today is a testament to the confidence of our players. They have put in time and they believe in themselves and that showed today."

For the girls, BP's Taylor Christianson captured her third straight state tournament berth with a second-place finish, scoring an even 81-81 for a 162 total.

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

Blooming Prairie has enjoyed some great sports success over recent history as KRFO's Jason Iacovino tweeted Tuesday afternoon. State tournament trips include girls basketball in 2000; football in 2009, 2011 and 2014; and softball four straight seasons from 2010-13, winning the state title in the last year.