Athens Drive's girls golf team appears to be on the warpath to repeating their state title of a year ago.

The Lady Jags won the East Regional by 18 strokes, and their score of 233 was 28 strokes lower than the next-best team in the West or Central regionals.

Freshman Sarah Bae led the Jags by winning the East Regional with a 74. Katherine Perry was close behind, coming in third with a 78. The Jags' Sydney Shackleford finished fifth with a 81 and Mandy Monchick tied for sixth with an 82. 

All those four can post something similar, the Jaguars will be hard to beat in Tuesday's state title at Foxfire Country Club in West End, N.C.

Green Hope, which finished second in the Tri-Nine Conference to Athens Drive, came in with the third-lowest team score and qualifed for the state championship as well.

The Falcons were led by Andrea Estes, who finished 10th with an 84.

Apex may have missed the cutoff to qualify as a team, but they will send one individual qualifier in Michelle Pilo. Pilo tied Athens' Monchick for sixth.

Katherine Perry, senior, Athens Drive golf

Senior golfer Katherine Perry confirmed today via text message that she will be playing golf for the school of her dreams, UNC-Chapel Hill, next year. Perry grew up a fan of the Tar Heels and had wanted to play there for quite some time.

This summer, Perry won two the North Carolina Amateur title, U.S. Open qualifying events and competed in the Women's U.S. Open in Bethelehem, Pa.

She was also the highest finisher (eighth overall) on last year's state championship team. She nearly missed conference Player of the Year honors last year, finishing less than a half-stroke behind Courtney Rousse (now playing at the University of Richmond).

Athens Drive returns all four players from last year's state championship team this season.

After 36 holes of play, Apex rising senior Andy Knox took fourth place at the 60th Carolinas Junior Championship on Thursday at the Dogwood course at The Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst, N.C.

Knox's three-day scores of 70, 74 and 74 put him four strokes back of the top spot and a 4-over-par finish. He was joined in the top 10 by former Apex teammate John Conners, who was 7-over.

A Cary-area golfer had won the past two Carolinas Junior Championship titles.

Lee Bedford won the Junior Championship of the Carolinas Golf Association in 2007. Michael Marshburn won it in 2008. Now Andy Knox, the third-ranked golfer in the state, will try to become the third straight Cary-area golfer to win the title this year.

As you may have read, Cary native Katherine Perry, a rising senior at Athens Drive, is competing in this weekend's Women's U.S. Open in Bethlehem, Pa.

We'll be updated on this blog to keep you current on Katherine's performance throughout the weekend on how she's doing, so keep coming back.

Thursday 7:00 a.m. — Perry tees off in the first grouping (on the 10th hole) along with Irene Cho and Eunjung Yi. 

Thursday 10:51 a.m. — Perry shooting +2 through 11 holes, tied for 20th right now. EDIT: She started on the 10th hole, so make that +2 through two.

 Thursday 1:00 p.m. — Sorry it's taken awhile to post, but like Katherine, I've had a rough go (some 404 error was preventing me from accessing the page). Perry was 7-over par (78) in the first round. She hit 8-of-14 greens and averaged 1.78 putts per hole.  While she did record two birdies and nine pars — not bad for a 17-year-old, she also had five bogies and two double bogies.

To see more of her stats, click on this link: http://www.uswomensopen.com/scoring/nml/card/card53716.html

Friday 10:25 a.m. — Katherine will be teeing off from hole No. 1 today at 12:30 p.m. along with Eunjung Lee.  The front nine will be pivotal for her, as she shot six-over through holes 1-9 yesterday but only one-over on 10-18.

 Friday 10:30 a.m. — I'd also like to note Katherine is 12th out of the 28 qualifying amateurs at +7 (T85th-place). The top amateur, Alexis Thompson (1-over par) is in tenth place and three strokes behind tri-leaders Lorena Ochoa, Cristie Kerr and Jean Reynolds. 

 Friday (through six holes) — Not looking too good for Perry, as these holes have been her bugaboo thus far. She's 3-over through the first six, 10-over on the tournament.

Friday (through the front 9) —  Perry regroups to actually shoot better through the front 9 than she did yesterday, firing a 5-over 41 to bring her total to 13-over par thus far.

Friday (through hole No. 14) — Four holes left and Perry has had one par, three bogies and one disasterous quadruple bogie on hole No. 11 has her 12-over on the day and 19-over thus far. She won't make the cut, but let's see if she bears down over these last few holes.

Friday (through the end of round 2) — That's how you end strong, Katherine. Perry has four pars and one bogie over the last five holes to end 20-over par. She misses the cut, but it's an honor to be there in the first place. We'll have a Q&A with her for this week's paper, so be looking for that. 

With two rounds of 67, Raleigh's Grayson Murray won the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship sectional qualifier at MacGregor Downs Country Club in Cary on Monday, therefore qualifying him for the event which takes place July 20-25.

Joining the rising sophomore at Leesville Road is Andy Knox, a rising senior at Apex High, has qualified for this summer's U.S. Junior Amateur Championship after placing in the top-four at the sectional qualifier yesterday at MacGregor Downs Country Club in Cary.

Knox finished third after shooting a 69 in the first round and following that up with a 70 in the second. 

This year's U.S. Junior Amateur Championship will be at Trump National Golf Club at Bedminster, N.J. from July 20-25. 

Also qualifying were Trevor Cone, of Concord, N.C., and Leif Neijstrom of Greensboro. Coalter Paxon IV, from Wilson, and James Ellis, from Greenville, earned alternate spots.

Andy Knox, a rising senior at Apex High School, has qualified for this summer's U.S. Junior Amateur Championship after placing in the top-four at the sectional qualifier yesterday at MacGregor Downs Country Club in Cary.

Knox finished third after shooting a 69 in the first round and following that up with a 70 in the second. 

This year's U.S. Junior Amateur Championship will be at Trump National Golf Club at Bedminster, N.J. from July 20-25. 

 Katherine Perry, a rising senior at Athens Drive, had already led her team to a state title and been named to first team all-state this year before her biggest accomplishment of all.

Perry won the U.S. Women's Open Sectional qualifier at Carolina Trace Country Club in Sanford on Thursday, earning a spot in this year's women's U.S. Open. 

 Perry won the qualifier with a 3-under score after firing rounds of 70 and 71 on the par 72 course.

 The U.S. Open will be held from July 6-12 at the Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Penn.

Thomas Bass is Greater Neuse 4-A golfer of the year.

Michael Cromie shot a five-under par 66 and finished with a 139 total to lead Green Hope to the N.C. High School Athletic Association 4-A golf championship at Pinehurst No. 4 on Tuesday.

Cromie won the individual title by five strokes.

Green Hope topped second-place Charlotte Providence 601-609 for the team title, its third in the last four years and fourth in the last seven. Northern Durham (617) was fourth.

Apex came in sixth and had two golfers, Andy Knox and John Conners, in the top-seven at numbers five and seven respectively.

Fuquay's Harrison Ashworth actually tied for second, but lost in a sudden-death playoff to determine who finished second and third.