The top three boys golf teams in the Tri-Nine Conference can all claim bragging rights after the conference tournament championship at Bentwinds Country Club in Fuquay-Varina.

Holly Springs won the 18-hole tournament Monday by firing a 297 team score, Green Hope clinched the season-long conference championship and Athens Drive senior Alex Ehlert received conference player of the year.

After years of domination by Green Hope, where the Falcons were able to pull off one or two conference wins, parity ruled this year's Tri-Nine.

Four different teams won a conference match. Green Hope won three.

"I thought a lot of teams in the conference were pretty much equal. There were a lot of teams that won a match," first-year Falcons coach Michael Robinson said.

On their way to an eighth conference championship in nine years, the Falcons were led by four all-conference selections.

Will Thomas, a junior committed to UNC-Greensboro, won the conference tournament with a two-under 70 and finished second in the race for conference player of the year.

Andy Fowler, a senior who has accepted an invited walk-on spot to Wofford, finished third.

On May 2, the two-time defending state champion Falcons will begin play at Duke University Golf Club for the Mideast regional. Joining them will be the conference's next three teams: Holly Springs, Athens Drive and Cary.

"We're optimistic right now," Robinson said.

Ehlert, a senior and UNC-Greensboro recruit, said the key to his stellar play this year has been his maturity.

"I've learned how to plot my way around a course and play smarter - not always go for the pin," Ehlert said. "My short game has also improved a lot. It's helped me get out of some tough situations when I did hit a bad shot."

Ehlert barely edged three other college-bound golfers in what was a tight race to the finish all year long with Fowler, Thomas and Holly Springs' Grant Houser.

Aside from the top four Tri-Nine teams, some individual golfers from other teams also qualified for the Mideast Regional: Apex's Zach Smith, Panther Creek's Sean Kelly and Middle Creek's Wes Strader and Chad Johnson.

Cary first-year coach Carl Chaney was named Tri-Nine coach of the year after guiding the Imps to their first conference win in more than a decade.