Jason Johnson has been named the new principal of Orange High School by the Orange County Board of Education. 

Johnson formerly served as principal of Gravelly Hill Middle School from 2006-11 and as an assistant principal at A. L. Stanback Middle School from 2001-04.  Recently, he has been working with the N.C. Department of Public Instruction as a school transformation coach, where he worked with school principals across the state to improve student achievement and learning environments, according to a news release.

Johnson will replace Armond Hankins, who was recently demoted to an assistant principal positon in an as yet unnamed school. Hankins has said he does not accept his demotion but declined to comment on the reasons the district gave for removing him.

A group of parents and others have signed an on online petition supporting Hankins and suggesting race was a factor in his demotion, after the departure of other black administrators in recent years. The school board has said race was not a factor in the decision. 

The Hilltop Invitational, the Triangle's largest spring break baseball tournament, begins Thursday and uses the fields at East Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, Orange and Cedar Ridge high schools to host two eight-team tournaments.

The "American Division" is hosted by East Chapel Hill and Orange and features Cary, East Chapel Hill, East Forsyth, South Granville, Burlington Williams, Granville Central, Maury (Va.) and Orange.

The "National Division" is hosted by Chapel Hill and Cedar Ridge and features Cardinal Gibbons, Durham Jordan, Surry Central, Cedar Ridge, Southern Alamance, Kernersville Glenn, Tallmadge (Ohio) and Chapel Hill.

The following is a list of area high school wrestlers who have qualified for this weekend's N.C. High School Athletic Association individual championships.

Leading the area in qualifiers per classification are Chatham Central (four), North Johnston (five), Orange (11) and Pinecrest (seven).

Click the headline or "read more" to see the full list of qualifiying wrestling from our area -- plus their overall record and weight class.

Chapel Hill was the top seed for the boys and girls tournaments in the Carolina-6 3A Conference, but only one team won -- and it was not the undefeated boys.

Click here to read the story on the Chapel Hill boys' loss to Oxford Webb and the Chapel Hill girls' defeat of Southern Vance in the tournament finals.

Here is a photo gallery from the boys championship game

Here is a photo gallery from the girls championship game

*Updated Wednesday night*

Cary High and Orange High will be among the host sites for the quarterfinal and semifinal round rounds of the N.C. High School Athletic Association dual-team wrestling tournament on Thursday.

The N.C. High School Athletic Association playoffs are set to start this Tuesday. The first and second rounds will be played at one school site. With exception to the 1A bracket, the third and fourth rounds are held at a school on Thursday (the 1A only has one match that day for the regional title.

All four state championships Saturday between the East and West champion, also held at a school.

N&O wrestling rankings (with last week's ranking in parentheses). We have one new team in the top 12, and some teams leapfrogged others after impressive weekends.

Orange High defended its own tournament by placing first at this year's 2011 Jim King Orange Invitational on Saturday.

The Panthers had two first-place champions in the 23-team field and had 12 different wrestlers place sixth or higher. Orange's 253 points were well clear of second-place Cary (187.5), third-place Northern Durham (161) and fourth-place Jordan (156).

Click read more to see full results

The third round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association volleyball playoffs will be played Thursday night. Below show who is left in the 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A East brackets. In cases where teams have the same seed from different conferences, we've placed the host team on top.

There are several intriguing match-ups left in each area.

Chapel Hill and East Chapel Hill will play at 8 p.m. Thursday on the campus of Carrboro High School in the finals of The O.C. - an invitational soccer tournament that matched prep teams from Orange and Chtham counties.