BOYNE FALLS, Mich. — The Houghton Gremlins boys ski team qualified for the state high school meet by finishing third at the Division 2 regional races at Boyne Mountain Monday. Petoskey and Great North Alpine finished ahead of the Gremlin boys.

For the boys, it marked the first time in about 20 years that they qualified for the state finals.

Eli Heathman led Gremlins with two second place finishes. The first was in the giant slalom, where he led after the first run with a time of 34.80. His second run came in at 38.04, which was good for fourth, and allowed Gavin Galbraith from Petoskey to sneak in and take the top spot overall.

Logan Niemi (16th), Jack Haeussler (17th), and Brady Rubin (28th) finished in the top-30 to help the Gremlins earn 63 points in the event.

In the slalom, Heathman opened with a run of 31.86, which was third-best at the time, His second run of 33.24 was second-fastest for that run, helping him finish second overall.

Haeussler opened with a first run of 33.82, which was seventh. His second run of 34.85 was the fifth-fastest, helping him finish sixth in the event.

Rubin finished 19th and Indrek Seigel finished 35th to round out the Gremlins’ scoring.

The Houghton Girls saved their best skiing for the regionals. They came up just short of qualifying for the state meet in fifth place.

Rachel Sun opened her giant slalom run with a time of 42.00, which put her in 17th after the open run. Her second run was much better at 41.47, which was 10th-best and helped her finish 13th overall.

Lily Martineau (19th), Regan Aho (29th), and Lezley Heldt (44th) all finished in the top-45 to help the Gremlins finish sixth in the discipline.

Sun then took 10th in the slalom, which qualified her for the state meet as an individual qualifier. She opened with a run of 41.34, which had her in 12th. She followed that up with a time of 41.13, which was the sixth-fastest second run, helping her get to 10th overall.

Martineau finished 20th, Aho took 35th, and Heldt finished 43rd.