Green Hope runners were as hot as the weather Saturday, recording a pair of top three team finishes in the Wolfpack Invitational at WakeMed Soccer Park.

Led by Brian Spreitzer’s third-place individual finish, the Falcons used their depth to edge highly-touted Raleigh Broughton for the team honors in the championship boys event, 100-105.

The Lady Falcons couldn’t match the strength of Alabama’s Mountain Brook High School in the Championship girls race, but still had enough depth to claim third place behind runner-up East Chapel Hill.

Not to be left out of the fun, Cary Academy ran a strong race in the invitational girls event, capitalizing on their sixth individual finisher to edge Clayton in a tie-breaker for third place in the team standings.

Both Falcons editions benefited from strong starts, part of the team strategy entering the meet.

“I thought the guys did a great job by getting out of the blocks real fast today,” Falcons coach Mike Miragliuolo said. “We knew Broughton would come out fast, and I thought the team race would be between the two of us and Chapel Hill.”

The team goal, Miragliuolo said, was “not to let either of those teams get too far away real early ... we ran a smart race.”

Chapel Hill, led by individual winner Taylor Gilland, threatened to blow the race wide-open by placing three runners among the top 1- finishers. Gilland won in a time of 15 minutes, 39 seconds on the 5-Kilometer (3.1 miles) course, edging out West Johnston’s Dakota Peachee by five seconds.

But the Falcons, in addition to Spreitzer’s 16:07 finish, received an 11th-place finish from Zac Roshdy (16:23), a 19th-place showing from Doug Black (16:36); 37th from Stephen Baulch (17:05); and a 38th from Scott Hefner (17:06) to edge the Caps.

Several schools in the field were competing without a full team (five runners are needed for scoring purposes) and were not scored, causing individual finishing points to be adjusted for schools fielding full teams.

Cary Academy, led by Thomas Graham (12th, 16:25) and Nick Kisley (27th, 16:46), placed 15th with 383 points in the team standings, while Athens Drive was 18th with 432 points.

Middle Creek, paced by the 23rd-place showing of Trey Geiger (16:40) followed the Jags in the team standings with 464 points, and Apex, led by Bryan Noreen’s 41st-place effort (17:09) was 21st with 520.

A total of 301 runners competed in the championship boys event.

While Mountain Brook was running away with the girls title, a tight three-way race emerged for runner-up honors between East Chapel Hill, Green Hope and Cardinal Gibbons.

East, led by overall winner Carolyn Baskir (18:26), combined an 18th, 34th, 43rd and a 48th-place finish to tally 136 team points, in nipping the Lady Falcons by three points.

Green Hope’s third-place overall showing was led by Jessica Rossabi, who placed twelfth in 19:38, while Carly Roos placed 24th in 20:15.

Also figuring in the team scoring were Morgan Youd (31st, 20:26); Sarah Alexander (36th, 20:40) and Lauren Colberg (45th, 20:55).

“I have mixed feelings about the girls’ effort,” Miragliuolo said. “I think they could have started smarter, but they finished well and did a good job overall.”

Apex, which placed 13th with 347 points, had strong efforts from Kersie Jhabvala, placing 23rd in 20:13 and Amanda Hamilton, 38th in 20:43.

Athens Drive took 14th in the team standings, amassing 362 points, paced by Emily Love, 47th in 20:59 and Kasey Briggs, 50th in 21:03.

Middle Creek finished 22nd in the team standings with 652 points in the event, which consisted of 218 individual competitors.

Cary Academy edged Clayton in the invitational girls standings when Hannah Kisley crossed the line in 70th place in the 235-runner field.

Kisley, who finished in a time of 23:58, was the sixth runner to finish the race for Cary, while Clayton’s Haley Abene, the Comets’ sixth finisher, ended the race in 82nd place with a time of 24:37.

Both schools amassed 156 points with their five officially scored runners, making the sixth finisher the tie-breaker in the team standings.

Cary Academy was led by Caitlin Kelly, 22nd in a time of 22:23, and was followed across the finish line by teammates Anna Hamilton, (32nd, 22:51); Rachel Gonsalves (33rd, 22:51); Emily Cornell (36th, 22:54) and Michelle Montpetit, 52nd in 23:15.

Cary Christian School, led by Aundrea Holmes’ 32nd-pace finish in 22:50, took 16th in the eam standings with 382 points.

CCS edged Panther Creek, which was 17th in the team standings with 386 points. The Catamounts were led by Dana Cox, who finished 23rd in 22:33, just a step behind Kelly.

Panther Creek led the way for area teams in the invitational boys race, finishing 10th overall with 333 points, while Cary Christian was 12th with 360.

Top finishers for the Catamounts were Sam Trawick, 25th in a time of 18:28, and Hemant Desai, 44th in a time of 19:04.

Cary Christian started strong, with Bobby Mintz placing seventh in 17:40, while Daniel Jezioranski was 35th in 18:48 and Bobby Duncan 46th in 19:10.

But CCS’ final two runners found themselves in the second half of the 263-man field, pushing the team down in the standings.