CRESTED BUTTE – The Alpine Christian boys’ cross country team surprised some people at Saturday’s Class 3A Regional meet here – including its coach.

The Alpine Christian boys won the regional meet and the girls placed third as both squads qualify for next week’s state championship, to be held at Kent Denver High School in Denver.

“We did great,” Alpine Christian head coach Ron Lund said. “We’re sending both girls and boys to state. The real surprise is the boys’ run. They didn’t even have a team most of the season.”

The Alpine Christian boys, paced by fifth-place finisher John Tucker, finished with 53 points. Meeker was a close second at 58, winning the tiebreaker over Aspen, which also finished with 58 points. Crested Butte and Olathe also qualified for state with 61 and 67, respectively.

“I knew it was close, especially with the last guy coming in,” Lund said. “(Lloyd Tucker) was able to make up five or six places in the last half mile and that turned out to be the difference.”

John Tucker finished fifth with a time of 18 minutes 30 seconds. Aspen’s Simi Hamilton won the race. Colin Stewart was 12th for Alpine in 19:28 and Keane Karnan was 13th in 19:36. Lloyd Tucker came in at 20:40 for the key 23rd-place finish.

On the girls side, Alpine’s March Thompson and Ashley Eaton placed second and third respectively to lead the team to its third-place finish.

Aspen won the meet with help from individual winner Christy Severy with 27 points, followed by Hotchkiss at 33. Alpine posted 52 points and the final qualifier, Gunnison, had 57.

Alpine’s Thompson clocked a 21:14 on the 5K course, with teammate Eaton 2 seconds behind. Other Alpine finishers include: Deanna Spracher in 22nd; Whitney Lund in 25th; and Sam Hoffman in 27th.