High school juniors and seniors are far too young to be talking about a bucket list—but whether you call it a goal or a dream, two area juniors have checked off one of the biggest items in junior golf.

Blue Ridge High School teammates Dawson Szabo and Owen Kinnunen have each earned a spot in the prestigious U.S. Junior Championship, which begins Monday at Trinity Forest Golf Club near Dallas.

And how they got there might be a first.

We tried to find any kind of record for two golfers from the same school owning the two major junior championships in the Carolinas at the same time and we didn’t find anything.

Szabo and Kinnunen have made history.

In addition to open qualifying, the USGA recently began offering state exemptions for their junior champion. That’s good news for South Carolina golfers, who have two shots at a guaranteed exempt entry—one via the South Carolina Golf Association and another through the Carolinas Golf Association.

Szabo earned his spot by winning the South Carolina Junior Championship, while Kinnunen claimed his ticket a week later by surviving a playoff to win the Carolinas Boys Championship.

“At the beginning of the year, my goal was to get to the U.S. Junior,” Szabo said. “It’s on the bucket list of every junior golfer. It’s such a big honor to go there.”

As far as the Carolinas record books show, no two high school teammates have ever pulled off what Szabo and Kinnunen have done: winning both championships in the same year would have been major accomplishments – now the exempt entry offers a prize even bigger than the individual medals they received for winning.

The Blue Ridge pair already led their school to a South Carolina 4A team title and have both captured individual high school state championships. Szabo also added a win at this year’s Southern Cross Invitational.

“It means a lot—especially with this being my last year in junior golf and moving into my amateur career,” said Kinnunen. “To do it with one of my best friends makes it really special.”

Their daily routine—practicing, playing, and competing together—has forged a bond that runs deeper than most junior golf rivalries.

“We’re back and forth every day,” said Szabo. “He’ll win, then I’ll win, then he wins again. We’re always pushing each other.”

Even their travel plans reflect the partnership—they boarded the same flight to Dallas, seated side-by-side, with both families making the trip.

But now that they’ve made it, what does success look like?

“I just want to enjoy the experience and soak it all in,” Kinnunen said. “If it’s my week to make match play—and who knows, maybe win the thing—that would be awesome. But really, I just want to take it in. It’s my last junior tournament.”

“It’s just another tournament,” Szabo added with a grin. “But a special one. I’m not putting pressure on myself—just living in the moment.”

For now, they’ve already reached a mountaintop. What happens next is anyone’s guess.

“Making the field was a goal,” Kinnunen said. “Now the next step is to make match play. And from there—who knows what can happen.”

Carolina girls also competed in their own USGA Junior championship.

Mia Carles, from Clinton, won the Women’s South Carolina Junior championship for the second straight year and the USGA has the same exemption policy for the girls junior as the boys.

Carles received the South Carolina automatic exemption to the girls version of the national championship in Atlanta at the Atlanta Athletic Club.

Carles made the Match Play field finishing tied for 51st in the stroke play qualifying round and went on to win her round of 64 match.

In her round of 32 match Carles lost 2 & 1 to the eventual USGA Girls champion Aphrodite Deng from Canada.