Brennan Baldwin shot a team-low 87 to lead Northside to a third-place finish at Monday’s 1-A eastern golf regional at the Washington Yacht and Country Club. With that, the Panthers earned themselves a spot at the 1-A state championship.

Northside finished with a team score of 385 by also getting scores from Gray Lewis (94), Evan Cornelius (102) and Braeden Cooper (102). Hunter Williams shot a 106, too.

“As a whole, we just kind of grinded it out and shot one of our lowest rounds in 385,” coach Jared Adams said. “We’re still shooting for the 360 mark, but we did what we needed to do to qualify for states. … Our goal at the beginning of the year is always to make regionals then qualify for states. We didn’t finish where we wanted to here at regionals, but we got third and qualified for states, meaning we got our goal for the year.”

The Panthers won the 1-A Coastal Plains Conference and 1-A eastern regional — both for the first time in program history — a year ago. They beat out nearby foe Riverside for the regional championship last time, but the Knights (367) edged them this time around.

Oxford Prep scooted past Riverside with a 364 team score to finish first in the east.

A return trip to the state championship is quite the feat for Northside. It lost its top-two performers from last year’s team, which finished ninth in the state.

“I would like to finish seventh or eighth at states,” Adams said of the objective moving forward. “Anything but last. As long as we improve and get better, if we shoot 384 at states and we end up finishing 12th, I’m pleased as long as we’re striving to get better with each round.”

Adams added that putting will be one of the challenges at the state championship.

Now the Panthers shift their attention to Thursday’s Beaufort County Cup competition against Washington, Southside and Pungo. Northside and the Pam Pack will look to use the event as a fun way to stay in form ahead of their respective state championships.

“It’s a good in-house match,” Adams said. “It’s good for the county and to get golf out there as a sport.”