CONCORD – Teenagers are known for sleeping in, but three teens who teed off early seized the lead Monday in the 109th New Hampshire Golf Association State Amateur Championship.

In the first round of stroke-play qualifying, youngsters Griffin Brown, Michael Martel and Matthew Killam shot 68s at Concord Country Club, giving them a one-stroke lead over nine-time champion and resident graybeard Bob Mielcarz, a longtime Concord member who has said he expects this year's State Am to be his last.

Brown, an 18-year-old Hollis resident who joked that his mother has to douse him with water to rouse him most mornings, teed off at 7:36 a.m. and posted a four-birdie, two-bogey round on the 6,444-yard, par-70 Concord layout. Teeing off on No. 10, he made birdies at Nos. 16, 17 and 6 before closing with a birdie on the par-3 ninth. His bogeys came at Nos. 3 and 15.

“I usually make a high number and a couple of birdies, but today I kept it together,” said Brown, a recent Hollis-Brookline High School graduate who plays out of The Overlook Golf Club. A match-play qualifier last year who lost in the second round at Nashua, he plans to play golf for South Carolina's Limestone College this fall.

Martel, a 19-year-old from New Ipswich, teed off No. 10 at 8:03 and strung together three consecutive birdies on Nos. 15-17, including a chip-in at 16, to offset two early bogeys. On the front nine, he made eight pars and birdied No. 8.

“I hit a lot of fairways and hit a lot of greens, which was my main goal today, and I rolled a few putts in,” said Martel, who plays out of Crotched Mountain Golf Club, where he also works. “So overall it was a great round. I did what I wanted to do.”

Playing in his third State Am, Martel advanced to match play in 2009 at Cochecho before losing in the first round. He missed the cut in 2010 at Eastman and did not enter last year.

Killam, a 17-year-old Texan who spends summers with his family in Newbury, blamed sleeping in for his decision to forsake a Sunday practice round at Concord. Playing the course sight unseen in his State Am debut, he teed off No. 10 at 8:21 and made five birdies, including two from off the green. He holed out from a bunker on No. 15, chipped in on No. 8 and required only 22 putts, he said.

“My putting and chipping was just outstanding,” said Killam, a Newport Golf Club player who was runner-up at the NHGA State Junior last month. “I knew anything inside of 6, 8 or 10 feet was in. That helped me on a few holes.”

Killam's other birdies came at Nos. 2, 5 and 12, and he bogeyed Nos. 6, 10 and 16.

The three leaders benefited from calm early conditions, while Mielcarz posted his 69 during a breezier afternoon. The 62-year-old veteran played a steady round, posting two birdies and one bogey. He capped the round with a chip-in birdie on his last hole, No. 9.

“I wasn't really expecting to make it,” Mielcarz said of his closing stroke. “That was a little surprise. I didn't want to make bogey on the last hole. I thought I could make par once I saw my lie, and I did one better, which was kind of an accident, a good accident.”

Mielcarz, whose last State Am title came in 2000, won his sixth crown the last time the State Am visited Concord in 1993.

Kevin Ferendo, a 28-year-old Candia Woods golfer playing in his first State Am, finished alone in fifth place at 70, while seven players were at 71: Tyler Silver (Hanover), Mark Kissel (Windham), Ryan Tombs (Manchester), Michael Mahan (The Oaks), Chris Durocher (Lake Sunapee), Bob Landry (Loudon) and Nick Fairweather (Windham).

Defending champion Jim Cilley of Canterbury Woods was one of five players who shot 72.

“I'm happy with 72,” said Cilley, who made three birdies and five bogeys. “It puts me in good shape heading into tomorrow, and hopefully the rest of the tournament. I've just got to clean it up a little.”

What's next: Stroke-play qualifying continues on Tuesday, with the low 64 scorers qualifying for match play starting Wednesday.