Photo by Jake McNeill: The Lakeview boys golf team accepts the Class A Championship trophy following its state tournament win at Pebble Creek Golf Club on Wednesday night.

BECKER – A year after finishing fourth in the Class A tournament, the Lakeview boys golf team got over the hump to become state champions for the first time in program history Wednesday night.

“Coming into today, I think the boys were very excited to just be at that top spot and that was their motivation,” Lakeview head coach Sarah Wahlstrom said. “They knew that second-place team [Walker-Hackensack-Akeley] was neck and neck with us the day before too, so they knew that they had to play well to keep up and they did.”

The Lakers were led by the sophomore duo of Carson Boe and Lane Arends. Boe shot a 71 in the second round of the tournament to secure a third-place finish at 1-under.

“It means a lot. We weren’t the favorites going into this tournament, but we all played well,” an emotional Boe said after the team’s victory. “All the hard work pays off. We’ve been working hard this year and it paid off.”

Also near the top of the 86-player field, Arends shot a 76 on Wednesday to move up six spots into a 10th.

“My expectations were just to break 80 and hit greens and fairways because that’s what you’ve got to do out here,” Arends said. “It feels great. It gives me the confidence that I need to keep going in to play at a high level… I can’t stop smiling.”

His score, three strokes improved from his first round, included three front-nine birdies and another birdie on hole 18 to close out the round.

“Lane came out yesterday and played really well. We were just hoping that he could shoot the same score and he came out and played even better today,” Lakeview’s Ethan Schwankl said. “That’s honestly where we made a huge jump.”

Arends’ performance tied him with Sleepy Eye United’s Carson Erickson, Renville County West’s Ryan Schrupp, Ada-Borup-West’s Ryan Engel and Fertile-Beltrami’s Ethan Finseth.

The Lakers’ two low scorers are both sophomores, giving them an extended window for success beyond this year despite the loss of key contributors such as Schwankl and Jordan Fischer.

“We’re going to lose some guys next year but we expect to come back and play well,” Boe said. “I’m sure we will.”

Lakeview put together a team score of 60-over in the tournament, beating out runner-up Walker-Hackensack-Akeley by six strokes. They came into the day with a two-stroke lead, but widespread improvements led them to a 26-over score on day two to pull away.

Schwankl, a senior, placed 24th. His performance put him in a tie with Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Ben Pearson at 158 strokes and finishing his career on a high note.

“It was amazing. We kind of came into the tournament just hoping to place after last year getting fourth by only about two shots and we came in here and took care of business,” Schwankl said. We felt like we didn’t play good the first day but came back and we knew what we had to do.”

Schwankl shot an 82 in the first round before putting everything together and shooting a 76 in round two to leap up the leaderboard. He had just one bogey on the front nine and also had a birdie on hole 16.

“Yesterday was a tough round because I just missed greens, but coming into today, everyone knew that there was shots to cut. We just focused on what we need to improve,” Schwankl said. “We all just played how we’ve been playing and I think that was the most important part, just knowing that we were better than our scores showed yesterday.”

Fischer, also a senior, rounded out the Lakers’ scorers at 180, placing 70th.

“Jordan came along this year as his first year back as a baseball player and he played pretty solid,” Schwankl said of his teammate. “I think the thing is we just all like to go out and golf, so it doesn’t seem like a big sport to us and we just go out to have fun.”

Owen Louwagie and Kyle Kurowski competed for Lakeview, shooting a 203 and 206 respectively.

“I thought they all did a very nice job. They all performed when they needed to,” Wahlstrom said. “A couple of them had a couple of ruffles, but then a couple other players stepped up and it worked out in the end.”

Nathan Kueny and Sawyer Drent qualified as individuals for Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda/Westbrook-Walnut Grove. Kueny finished in 26th at 159 while Drent placed 32nd at 162.

Russell-Tyler-Ruthton’s Chase Christensen placed 43rd at 167 and Dawson-Boyd eighth grader Carson Stratmoen shot a 169 to place 47th.