For the third year in a row, the Athens Drive girls golf team took the conference tournament championship. The Jaguars, the defending state champions, were as dominant as ever on a drizzly Monday at Carolina Trace Country Club in Sanford, N.C., finishing a whopping 33 strokes ahead of second-place Green Hope.

The team will compete in the regional tournament on Tuesday at Pittsboro’s Golf Club at Chapel Ridge. With a top-four team finish, the Jags can return to the state championships, being held this year at Foxfire Country Club in Jackson Springs, N.C.

“ We feel really confident going in as we’ve played in good condition, bad condition and we’ve been winning [conference] matches pretty handily,” Athens coach Tony Alcon said. “We’ve seen some other scores form around the state so we know we need to play our best.”

Katherine Perry, who was named Tri-Nine Player of the Year after the match, fired a two-under round. Perry will be going to UNC next year on an athletic scholarship and participated as an amateur qualifier in this past year’s U.S. Open.

The Jags were also led by a freshman. Sarah Bae fired a one-over 73 and finished just one stroke behind Perry for Player of the Year honors.

“ They’ve gone head-to-head the whole way. It’s been a challenge coaching [Perry and Bae], too,” Alcon said. “Especially when they’re so competitive.”

Sophomore Hillary Gugig’s 76 was her personal best this year and completed the scoring for Athens. Since team scores only take the top three scorers, senior Sydney Shackelford (85), sophomore Mande Monchick (91) and junior Valerie Procopio (94) all had scores that did not count towards the team’s scores.

Alcon said he feels good about his team heading into the state postseason. Going into the year, Athens returned all of their players from last year’s championship squad.

The addition of Bae only bolstered the unit, but that advantage has since been canceled out when senior Grace Stallings suffered a freak accident during the regular season’s final match.

“Her foot slipped off the car path and she dislocated her knee and is out for the season,” Alcon said. “She’s a very good player so we miss her quite a bit … we had to call the EMS and take her to the emergency room.”

Stallings was one of Athens’ top three scorers from last year’s state title game.

Her teammates will try to repeat as state champions for her – and the chances of that can increase depending on how many Jags do well in regional competition.

Should Athens qualify as a team, it can take four golfers to the state competition. If more than that qualify individually, however, they have a built-in advantage on the competition.

The more golfers Athens takes to the state competition, the more chances it can bring back a high score – or the less a bad round of golf would hurt its championship bid.

“I feel confident that if we play to our ability, we can qualify all five,” Alcon said. “Obviously if you have more shots at scoring, then one girl … can make the difference in the score being so low.”

Team scores Athens Drive 219 Green Hope 252 Apex 280 Middle Creek 318 Fuquay-Varina 327 Panther Creek 345 Cary 355 Lee County 360 Holly Springs 361