Overcoming the bitter-cold weather, Rosewood’s Billy Strickland had another great race on Friday by crossing the tape in 18:51.87 in the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A Mideast Regional held at the WakeMed Soccer Park.

Strickland’s 12th place finish was good enough to book a reservation at next weekend’s 1A state championship meet held at the Ivey M. Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville.

“When I looked at the crowd of runners, only a few things were going through my head,” Strickland said. “When will it begin, and how will it end? Running the race the exciting and hard, and I continued to push and qualified for states.

“It was an honor to run that race.”

Carl Blevins and Alex William Jones also performed well for the Eagles, logging times of 20:30.80 and 21:13.21, respectively.

Princeton also ran well, led by Ernesto Garcia’s time of 19:20.28, while Garcia’s teammate Milson Morales Bartolon finished with a mark of 21:01.16.

The weather only worsened during the girls’ race, and in the rain, Rosewood’s Jaylee Amy completed the course in 24:35.35. India Young (25:34.79) and Carson Crane (25:39.76) rounded out the effort for Rosewood.

Princeton was paced by Margaret Parrish, who ran the course in 26:26.13.