With Apex, Cary Academy and Cary Christian coming up short of the prize in championship games on Saturday, our area has now produced nine runners-up as opposed to five champions.
You can make that 10 if you count Cary twice for taking second in both state wrestling championships.
Taking second is nothing to be ashamed of. It's a good problem to have. The county to the south, Harnett, has four high schools and none has ever won a state team title in any sport.
So while I could focus on our area's 1-6 record in championship games - only Cary Christian's girls winning the year's final head-to-head meeting - I prefer the fact we've had seven teams get that far.
And maybe a few more still to come.
..............
The Cary Christian girls track and field team finished third at the NCISAA 1-A/2-A championships held at Ravenscroft School on Saturday.
The boys team came in fourth.
The girls team, finishing with 100 points - 45 behind champ Victory Christian.
The girls 4x800 team of Aundrea Holmes, Tiffany Hagan, Caroline Stogner and Carson Tester won the event with a 10:43.12.
Hagan, Holmes and Stogner recorded team points in the 800m run. Holmes finished second in the 1600-meter run with a 5:42.15.
Brittany Lord's time of 17.55 was good for third in the 100-meter hurdles.
Emily Ficken (47.82) finished second in the 300m hurldes and Lord took fourth.
Alexis White finished second in the high jump.
White took second in the triple jump with 32 feet, 7 inches. Lord, 15-2 in the long jump, was fifth.
The boys finished with 55 points, well behind first-place Victory Christian (117).
Jonathan Clarkson won the 100m dash with an 11:45.
He also finished second in the 200-meter dash.
Bobby Mintz took first in the 800-meter run (2:00.94), the 3200-meter run (19.17.47) and second in the 1600-meter run.