Welcome to The Great 58, a list that brings attention to the special accomplishments and noteworthy items in high school sports in the state of North Carolina. Fifty-eight schools and/or athletes, listed in bold, are highlighted in each column. Nominations are welcome by emailing [email protected].

Don’t forget that there’s a weekly feature that does this for football — Joel Bryant’s Starting 22.

Enjoy the second edition of The Great 58! Previous editions are below:

GIRLS GOLF (5)

Girls golf’s postseason is quickly arriving. Not all leagues do conference tournaments, but there are a few conference champions to list here.

Greensboro Day’s Mallory Pitts was named Player of the Year in the Piedmont Triad Athletic Conference, while Reagan’s Ellie Acrey won the Central Piedmont Conference title.

Delaney Kinter of Thomas Jefferson Classical was the Southern Piedmont Conference champion while Anna Tate of East Rutherford took top honors in the Mountain Foothills 7 (1A/2A) Conference.

Also of note, Weddington’s Brooke Hodgin had a hole in one on Tuesday.

BOYS AND GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY (15)

Cross country conference champions are being crowned all this week. Here’s an initial list of some conference champs for this week’s Great 58.

In the Southwest Wake Athletic Conference, Holly Springs’ Brandon Williams and Apex’s Gracie Pastino were the champions.

In the Quad County Conference, West Johnston’s Ember Lindley and Warner Clark each won conference titles.

In the Rocky River (2A/3A) Conference, Parkwood’s Bryce Cooke and West Stanly’s Kelsey Burleson won league crowns.

In the Super Six (1A/2A) Conference, Franklin Academy’s Roland Leslie and NCSSM-Durham’s Catherine Parker were tops.

For the Northern Athletic Conference, league champions were Wakefield’s Callin Farr and Wake Forest’s Allie Raitano.

In the Central Tar Heel Conference, Nishant Srinivasa of Triangle Math & Science Academy and Anna Peeler of Woods Charter were crowned champions.

State championships were held for the N.C. Home Educators Athletic Commission. New Life Camp won both the boys and girls team titles.

Owen Munn of the Greensboro Gladiators and Ella McCall of the Chapel Hill Cheetahs were state champions.

GIRLS TENNIS (20)

It was a big week for girls tennis as most conferences held their individual tournaments. Conference tournaments qualify players for next week’s regionals, but that’s up to each league. For instance, the WNC teams who were affected by Hurricane Helene could simply send in their qualifiers and not play the tournament. Or, a split conference could have one big tournament and pit all of its players against each other for a true champion, but most split their classifications apart.

Anyway, here are the champs we know of:

Terry Sanford (a 3A in a 3A/4A split) swept All-American singles (Pauline Bui) and doubles (Loren Galaviz and Jenny Wang) titles.

Apex Friendship’s Emma Cyrus and Caralyn Izod won the Southwest Wake Athletic Conference doubles title.

Watauga’s Sienna Davidson defeated teammate Addison Cohen for the Northwestern Conference (4A in a 3A/4A split) singles title.

New Hanover’s Hanna Davis and Sophia Catino won the Mideastern Conference (4A in a 3A/4A split) doubles title while Elizabeth Sifly won singles.

Triangle Math & Science Academy’s Sasha Korjova won the Central Tar Heel Conference singles title.

Mount Airy swept the Northwest Conference singles (Lynn Meadows) and doubles (Carrie Marion and Audrey Brown) titles.

Cardinal Gibbons’ Celeste Davis won the Cap-6 Conference singles title (defeating teammate Anya Aga) while teammates Claire Stewart and Lilly Heiden won doubles.

Charlotte Catholic’s Ella Davis was the Southwestern Conference singles champ.

Myers Park’s Teagan Reilly won the So. Meck 7 Conference singles title.

BOYS SOCCER (6)

The Burlington School’s Sebastian Urgilies is the first player in the state to reach the 50-goal mark and is one of just three with more than 40.

In keeping with the start of the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association’s playoffs this week, here are more names who have been having standout years.

Gaston Day’s Ben Horgan (32 goals), Charlotte Country Day’s Philip Preslar (30 goals), Greenfield’s Landyn Coolbaugh (25 goals, 16 assists), Cary Academy’s Cooper Harris (18 goals, 3 assists) and Cape Fear Academy’s Council Lancaster (26 goals, 7 assists) are among the NCISAA’s best in points.

Some of the top goalkeepers include Christ School’s Felix Huebner, Cary Academy’s Ayden Musau, and Durham Academy’s Jack Kelley.

VOLLEYBALL (9)

Keeping with the NCISAA theme, here are a few players to know as playoffs begin: Wesleyan Christian’s Nejari Crooks (282 kills), Cannon School’s Arianna Lopez (7.1 assists per set), Ravenscroft’s Claire Kukulinski (3.2 digs, 3.4 kills per set), Rocky Mount Academy’s McKenna Rogers (3.9 kills per set), North Raleigh Christian’s Zoe Richardson (4.3 kills per set), Charlotte Country Day’s Sanaa Mohammed (3.6 kills per set), and Davidson Day’s Halle Horton (4.2 kills per set) and Jordin Glass (58 blocks).

This, of course, leaves out the monster year of Gaston Day’s Anne Bradley Bing, who we’ve already mentioned this year but her 8.4 kills per set bears repeating. She has 10 matches with 30 or more kills, including a season-high of 45 against Gaston Christian earlier this month.

Source: highschoolot.com