After a nail-biting finish to claim the fourth and final state qualifying position at the regional championship on Oct. 28, the Falcons finished third at the state championship.

The Falcons totaled 150 points at Tanglewood Park in Clemmons to finish third behind defending champion Chapel Hill High (40 points) — also from the Mideast Regional — and Charlotte Providence High (78).

Also, Apex High’s Andie Cozzarelli and Athens Drive High’s Callan Fike placed second and third, respectively, behind champion Kimberly Spano of North Mecklenburg High.

On the boys side, Green Hope finished sixth with 205 points. Chapel Hill High won the title with 52 points, followed by Charlotte Myers Park (104), Enloe High (136), Southern Pines Pinecrest High (169) and Broughton High (197).

Placing five scorers in the top 55, Green Hope recorded its best-ever team finish in the state meet. The Falcons were led by senior Felicity Brower, who finished 23rd with a time of 20:01. Junior Shannon Cox (25th, 20:05), senior Megan Brower (33rd, 20:20), sophomore Morgan Youd (54th, 21:02) and freshman Jessica Brunelle (55th, 21:04) rounded out the Falcons scoring.

Green Hope coach Michael Miragliuolo said the Falcons knew going into the state meet that Chapel Hill and Providence would be hard to beat.

“We’re pretty happy with what we did,” said Miragliuolo of the Falcons’ finish, which was the best by a Wake County team. “At the end of the summer we thought we had a chance to do better.”

The Falcons were expecting a top-three finish, but were also hoping to knock off Providence. In a dominating show of power, Chapel Hill had all five of their finishers across the line before the first Green Hope finisher, and four in before Providence’s first.

“We thought Chapel Hill probably had us,” Megan Brower said. “We didn’t think we could get them. We hadn’t raced Providence all year, but we just didn’t pull it out.

“It’s really great finishing so well because there are so many teams in the state. Finishing third is amazing.”

Felicity Brower concurred with her identical twin.

“Those two teams (Chapel Hill and Providence) are always really, really strong year-in and year-out,” she said. “I think third was an accomplishment. It was our highest team finish ever.”

Individually, Cozzarelli ran her fastest race at Tanglewood by 25 seconds, but her best was still not enough to win.

The finish was an inversion of the 2005 finish with last year’s third-place finisher, Spano, winning in a course-record time of 18:20.92, nearly 30 seconds ahead of Cozzarelli’s 18:50.31. Fike, last year’s champion, finished third in 19:03.44. Cary High junior Kristen Azarelo, also running as an individual qualifier, finished 16th with a time of 19:55.

Spano took off about midway through the race, “and she kept widening the lead,” Cozzarelli said.

Losing to Spano has given Cozzarelli motivation to train harder to get faster. The two are expected to meet again in two weeks at the Foot Locker Southeast Regional meet in Charlotte.

“I’m happy about (finishing second), but I’m not satisfied,” Cozzarelli said. “Being second’s still good, but I want to be first.”

The Falcons’ boys team was led by sophomore Zak Roshdy, who finished 30th in a time of 17:06. Sophomore Doug Black (36th, 17:08), senior Nate Youd (61st, 17:33), junior Adam Hrnicek (63rd, 17:34) and junior Brian Pahle (69th, 17:39) rounded out the Falcons scoring.