Tri-Nine wrestling standings:
| overall | conference | team | vs Apex | vs AD | vs Cary | vs F-V | vs GH | vs HS | vs Lee | vs MC | vs PC | |
| 7-7 | 2-2 | APEX | X | L | W | W | L | |||||
| 7-2 | 2-2 | ATHENS DRIVE | X | L | L | W | W | |||||
| 12-0 | 5-0 | CARY | W | W | X | W | W | W | ||||
| 7-8 | 0-4 | FUQUAY-VARINA | L | L | X | L | L | |||||
| 15-4 | 3-2 | GREEN HOPE | W | L | X | W | W | L | ||||
| 10-4 | 3-2 | HOLLY SPRINGS | L | W | X | W | W | L | ||||
| 4-9 | 1-5 | LEE COUNTY | L | L | L | L | X | W | L | |||
| 3-15 | 0-4 | MIDDLE CREEK | L | L | L | L | X | |||||
| 15-0 | 5-0 | PANTHER CREEK | X |
* - missing Lee County-Middle Creek score from 12/16
Tri-Nine boys basketball standings as of 12/15:
| Rank, Team | Conference record | Overall record |
| T-1. Apex | 4-1 | 5-2 |
| T-1. Middle Creek | 4-1 | 5-2 |
| T-1. Panther Creek | 4-1 | 5-2 |
| 4. Cary | 4-2 | 4-4 |
| 5. Holly Springs | 4-2 | 5-4 |
| 6. Green Hope | 2-2 | 3-6 |
| 7. Athens Drive | 1-3 | 3-6 |
| 8. Fuquay-Varina | 0-5 | 1-8 |
| 9. Lee County | 0-5 | 1-8 |
Tuesday's scores
Apex 63, Holly Springs 62
Middle Creek 60, Cary 50
Panther Creek 58, Athens Drive 54
Green Hope 45, Fuquay-Varina 44
Wayne Country Day 56, Cary Academy 43
Monday's scores
Sanderson 54, Cary 51
Tri-Nine girls basketball standings as of 12/16:
| Rank, Team | Conference Record | Overall Record |
| 1. Green Hope | 6-0 | 10-0 |
| 2. Apex | 5-0 | 6-1 |
| 3. Athens Drive | 4-1 | 9-1 |
| 4. Middle Creek | 3-2 | 5-2 |
| 5. Holly Springs | 3-3 | 3-5 |
| 6. Panther Creek | 1-4 | 1-6 |
| 7. Cary | 1-4 | 2-5 |
| 8. Fuquay-Varina | 1-5 | 1-8 |
| 9. Lee County | 0-5 | 1-6 |
Tuesday's scores:
Cary Christian 68, O'Neal School 19
Cary Academy 73, Wayne Country Day 26
Green Hope (x), Fuquay-Varina (< x)
Apex 49, Holly Springs 47
Middle Creek 67, Cary 39
Athens Drive 71, Panther Creek 30
Monday's scores
Sanderson 45, Cary 22
2009 Tri-Nine All Conference awards
Coach of the Year - Sean Crocker, Middle Creek (right)
Offensive Player of the Year - Cory Hunter, junior FB, Fuquay-Varina (top)
Special Teams Player of the Year - Steve Weis, senior K/P, Apex (left)
Offensive First Team
QB Garrett Leatham 11th Middle Creek
RB JJ Graves 12th Holly Springs
Kyree Green 11th Athens Drive
WR Devonte Knox 12th Middle Creek
Louis Wilder 11th Athens Drive
Dequan Swann 11th Lee County
OL Robert Crisp (right, 78) 12th Athens Drive 
Sean Lucius 11th Holly Springs
Robert Rhodes 12th Fuquay-Varina
Shawn Underwood 11th Fuquay-Varina
Jalen Wood 11th Lee County
Athlete Nate Budde 12th Fuquay-Varina
Offensive Second Team
QB Ben Snotherthly 11th Athens Drive
RB Deandre Henry 10th Cary
Stephen Sladek 12th Middle Creek
WR Kevin Jones 10th Middle Creek
Graham Love 12th Panther Creek
Jon Moore 10th Middle Creek
OL JaQueen Boyd 12th Athens Drive
Matt Boyer 12th Cary
Cody Gaulthier 12th Cary
B.J. Minter 11th Middle Creek
Al Reams 12th Middle Creek
Athlete Aaron Womack 12th Green Hope
2009 Tri-Nine All Conference awards
Defensive Player of the Year: Matt Laxton, senior LB, Middle Creek (pictured right)
Defensive First Team
DL Tremayne Dennis 12th
Phillip Ochieng 11th
Brandon Smith 12th Middle Creek
Shawn Underwood 11th Fuquay-Varina
LB Britt Cherry 11th Middle Creek
Mike Fogg (left) 12th Apex
Isaac Minor 12th Fuquay-Varina
DB Xavier Bailey 12th 
Lucas Edmisten 12th
Garrett Rider (right) 12th Middle Creek
Defensive Second Team
DL Tyler Bailey 12th Panther Creek
Ralphael Bernard 11th
LB
Tommy Robinson 11th
Nolan Volk 12th
T.J. Weinberg 12th Middle Creek
DB Isaiah Johnson 11th Panther Creek
Malcom Thaxton 11th Fuquay-Varina
Ulysses Upchurch 11th
Position in alphabetical order, not order of vote.
I know we've kept you all on pins and needles waiting for this week's edition, and I apologize for the wait. As you may have known, half our of six advancing football teams are now out of the playoffs. (15) Cary lost 7-0 at (2) Hoggard, (14) Panther Creek lost 63-34 at (3) Jack Britt and (12) Holly Springs lost 24-0 at (5) New Hanover. The three home Tri-Nine teams all won their games.
The worst part is while I made predictions for these, I didn't publish a blog on it nor pick by how many points. But just so you know, I had my best week ever, getting all six playoff games correct.
In the print edition of today's The Cary News and Southwest Wake News, I mistakenly said the All-Conference team for the Tri-Nine would be announced Monday.
As I found out later that night (and after deadline), the team was simply decided upon Monday and won't be announced until after the last conference team is ousted from the playoffs (so here's hoping we don't know that list for awhile).
Which brings me to today's column which looked back on the year at-large.
For the second straight year, a Green Hope player was awarded the Tri-Nine Conference volleyball Player of the Year. Senior Lindsey O'Connell was named this year's winner after her Falcons finished the year second in the conference with a 17-5 (14-2) record.
Student School Grade
Morgan Williams Cary 12
Kristen Harris Apex 11
Alston Kearns Apex 11
Jill Edwards Panther Creek 12
Taylor Pritchett Middle Creek 11
Lindsey O’Connell Green Hope 12
Adi Aman Green Hope 12
Camden Spade Athens Drive 12
2nd Team All Conference
Student School Grade
Megan Gravley Apex 10
Katherine Wu Panther Creek 12
Emily Horton Middle Creek 12
Kaitlin Quinn Green Hope 10
Raquelle Keeton Fuquay-Varina 11
Brandi Anderson Holly Springs 11
Mollie Schrull Lee County 12
Clarke Glendenning Cary 12
Player of the Year: Lindsey O’Connell Coach of the Year: Nikki O’Connell
Four days after it began, Tri-Nine Conference girls tennis championships were decided today.
Green Hope junior Melissa Kandinata defeated teammate sophomore Helen Wang for the singles title with 6-0, 6-1 scores.
In doubles, Apex juniors Shelby Bickel and Nikki Bowser repeated their conference doubles title by defeating Green Hope's Kayla Stokes and Brianna Steele in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3. Stokes and Steele finished runner-up in last year's tournament to Bickel and Bowser.
We'll have more coverage of this tournament in the future, so keep watching carynews.com/sports and southwestwakenews.com/sports for the full story!
The volleyball playoff picture for the Tri-Nine Conference is coming together with one game left in the regular season. All five playoff teams have been decided, and almost all seedings have as well.
Apex locked up back-to-back conference titles on Tuesday with a 3-1 win over Green Hope. The Cougars dropped just three games in 15 conference wins and will be the top seed heading into the playoffs.
Green Hope will come in second, losing just to Apex twice. Aside from the Apex losses, the Falcons only surrendered three games in 14 conference wins.
Middle Creek clinched the fifth and final playoff spot this week after wins over Lee County and Fuquay-Varina. The Mustangs are now 7-8 in the conference with the season finale coming at home against Apex on Tuesday.
The third and fourth seeds are the only ones left in question. Panther Creek and Cary come in tied for third with 10-5 conference records. These two teams will face off Tuesday night, with the winner earning a first round home match in the playoffs and the third seed.
The loser will take the conference's No. 4 spot and play on the road. Panther Creek will host the match and defeated Cary in their previous meeting 3-0.
