•Click here for complete results for the girls' regional race.

Don’t get Mike Miragliuolo wrong. The Green Hope cross country coach was happy to walk away from SAS Soccer Park with the Mideast Regional cross country championship trophy, but he hopes his boys bring the same focus to Clemmons this Saturday for the NCHSAA 4-A state championship race at Tanglewood Park.

“Do we have a shot next week? That’s what we wanted to find out this week,” Miragliuolo said. “We’d only run against Broughton and Enloe once, and we’d been beaten by them. And we hadn’t been beaten by anybody else this year. … I think, hopefully, we’ve done the training right so that we’re peaking at the right time.”

Saturday’s regional race certainly was the right place to start.

Heading into the race, there was little doubt the top four teams that would move on to the state championship race would be Green Hope, Enloe, Broughton and Chapel Hill.

That Green Hope, which outscored Enloe 48-52, eclipsed them all was surprising, even to the runners who made it happen.

“I’m terribly surprised because after the conference meet, it was looking like we were a third-place team,” said Zak Roshdy, who finished fifth in 16:20:91. “We came out and said let’s see how close we are to Enloe and Broughton and then make our run at the state meet. Just to be close to first, or even first, is surprising.”

The Falcons’ five scorers finished within 46 seconds of each other. Doug Black led the way by finishing third in 16:15.79. He was followed by Roshdy, Ryan Walling (sixth, 16:21.22), Bryan Spreitzer (ninth, 16:27.70) and Brian Pahle (25th, 17:01.44).

“I think Green Hope stepped up and ran incredible,” said Enloe coach Nick Mangum, whose team for much of the season sat atop the coaches’ poll. “They ran really well. I think some people may have counted them out, and that was definitely a big mistake.”

As impressive as Green Hope’s performance as a team was, so too was Black’s. He took a spill around the one-mile mark, leaving cleat marks and a nasty road rash all over his back. That he got up and finished third was nothing short of remarkable.

“Just to get up and keep competing like that’s amazing,” Miragliuolo said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. And it wasn’t just get up and run hard and run well. But it was get up and beat some of the best runners in the region and finish third. You just wonder, what if he doesn’t fall?”

Chapel Hill’s Taylor Gilland won the race for the second straight year with a time of 15:44.75. Enloe’s Nick Graw was second.

As was speculated pre-race, Cary was the odd-team out in the incredibly deep Mideast. The Imps, ranked eighth in the state’s coaches’ poll, finished fifth with 194 points.

“I knew we’d have to run a great race and we didn’t,” said Cary coach Jerry Dotson. “It wasn’t close. We were 90 points away. You can’t sit there and say we had a chance. There’s your top four teams in the state. They’ve been top four all year long. Where do we stand? I don’t know. And we won’t know.”

While the Imps won’t move on, their top runner will. Sophomore Mohamed Abushouk finished 18th in 16:43.59 and nabbed one of the region’s five individual qualifying spots.

Middle Creek’s Trey Geiger and Mitch Turner secured two of the other individual berths. Geiger finished 11th (16:34.90) and Turner 17th (16:41.87), making them the first Mustangs to qualify for the state championship meet.

As rewarding as Green Hope’s regional win was, Black said the team’s performance, regardless of the final standing, is what he expects will serve them best this weekend in Clemmons.

“It’s nice to come back and get our confidence back,” Black said. “We feel a lot more secure, but we’re going to have to go just as hard [Saturday] as we did today.”

Cozzarelli 2nd; Cary, Green Hope advance

In the girls’ race, Apex senior Andie Cozzarelli finished second, nearly 20 seconds off the pace, to Durham Jordan’s Michelle Lutz, whose winning time was 18:36.18.

Cozzarelli has been slowed in recent weeks by an iron deficiency, and she said the issue caused her to wonder if she would be able to even finish the race.

“I got two miles into the race, and my legs started feeling really heavy,” said Cozzarelli, who has twice won the regional championship and twice finished second. “I felt really good in the beginning. When I got [to two miles], it was like, bam! I don’t think I’m going to make it to the end.”

While Cozzarelli was a few seconds from the top spot, her team fell a few places short of advancing to the state championship race. Apex finished sixth overall with 151 points.

Chapel Hill won the regional title for the third straight year, outscoring runner-up East Chapel Hill 53-84. Cary finished third with 102 points, and Green Hope was fourth with 135.

Cary will return to the state championship race as a team for the first time in five years. Kristen Azarelo (sixth, 19:34.43), Jenna Christenson (seventh, 19:38.82), Sheridan Jordan (11th, 20:04.45), Brittany Estermyer (30th, 20:46.85) and Christine Dragonette (49th, 21:22.06) accounted for the Imps’ score.

“If you asked the girls, the first three would say they ran well; four and five will say they did not,” Dotson said. “They will tell you that and I will tell you that. They did not run their expectations, and it was still real solid how we did.”

Miragliuolo was similarly surprised and impressed by his girls’ team as he was with the boys’.

Shannon Cox, who’s been wearing a boot when she’s not running because of three stress fractures in her foot, finished 12th in 20:09.64 to lead the Falcons. Sarah Wilt (17th, 20:24.25), Christine Truesdale (28th, 20:38.23), Jackie Keung (38th, 21:06.79) and Jessica Brunelle (40th, 21:09.74) also scored for the Falcons.

“We were kind of pieced together,” Miragliuolo said. “I was wanting to have five people finish the race. ... They wanted it. I’m just so proud of both teams. It was such a great day.”

Athens Drive finished fifth as a team with 150 points.

While the Jaguars won’t move on as a team, their top finisher, Emily Love, will. Love finished 10th in 19:59.38. She will join Lutz, Cozzarelli, Sanderson’s Allison Cook and Broughton’s Timmons Williams as the region’s individual state qualifiers.