Garner's boys and Southeast Raleigh's girls are the Greater Neuse River 4A Conference regular-season basketball champions once again. The conference tournament begins on Monday with boys' quarterfinal games. Girls' play begins on Tuesday.

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.

Three Johnston County high schools will host first and second round pods Tuesday as the NCHSAA dual team wrestling playoffs begin. Northern Carolina 2A Conference champion Corinth Holders, North Johnston and Clayton will all serve as host schools.

Caterpillar announced today that it plans to invest $33 million in its manufacturing facilities in Johnston County and create 199 jobs over the next five years.

The project will expand the operations that are now home to Caterpillar's Building Construction Products Division. The expansion will make the Clayton facility the world source for several models of small wheel loaders produced by Caterpillar. 

Engineering and design work for BCP products will also take place at a new engineering and test facility near the Clayton manufacturing facility.  
 

Next week's West Johnston at Clayton high school basketball games have been moved to Monday, Jan. 9, at Clayton High School. The teams will play four games that day, beginning with junior varsity action at 4, followed by varsity boys and girls games beginning about 6:30 p.m.

The change was made because end-of-semester exams in Johnston County begin on Wednesday, Jan. 11.

Princeton and Corinth Holders both picked up their first boys soccer playoff victories in school history Wednesday night. They're just two of the four Johnston County teams who will play second round matches later this week.

The NCHSAA boys soccer playoffs begin this week with matches set for tonight and Wednesday. The schedule with start times that have been announced.

1-A

Martin Riverside at Princeton, 6 p.m on Wednesday

2-A

Corinth Holders at Graham, 6 p.m. on Wednsday

North Johnston at Greene Central

3-A

Greenville D.H. Conley at South Johnston, 7 p.m. on Wednesday

4-A

Garner at Wilmington Laney, 6 p.m. on Tuesday

West Johnston at New Bern, 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday

Clayton at Fayetteville Terry Sanford, 6 p.m. on Wednesday

The NCHSAA boys soccer playoffs begin this week, with most matches likely set for Wednesday. Here are the matches involving area teams in the Garner and Johnston County area. North Johnston, whose status was in limbo at the end of the regular season, is in as a wild card team.

We'll update with match times as soon as we know.

The NCHSAA's preliminary football playoff brackets are out. Remember, this is just the first try so these could change later today when they become official. We'll update things after that. ...

East Wake won the Greater Neuse River 4A Conference boys soccer championship. The Warriors will be the league's top seed in the state playoffs, which begin next week. Knightdale finished second, followed by West Johnston, Clayton and Garner, who will all advance to the postseason.

You can view the final regular season standings here

The state soccer playoff brackets should be out this afternoon or tomorrow. We'll post here when they're released.