Prep notebook: Jack Conley says he will decline Boston Red Sox

Leesville Road graduate Jack Conley plans to continue his baseball career at N.C. State next season, though he has until July 17 to officially decline the Boston Red Sox, who drafted the catcher in the 30th round last month.

“I just really didn’t want to make a decision off money and decided to go to college,” Conley said. “I’m thankful that they thought of me in that way and spent a draft pick on me. I wasn’t ready. I’m pretty set in my ways with college, and, hopefully, after three years, I’m looking at the same situation.”

Frazier named All-American: Ravenscroft graduate Ryen Frazier was named a MileSplit All-American as the No. 2 in the girls’ mile and No. 4 in the two-mile. The fastest times for Frazier, who will run for N.C. State in the fall, was a 4:38.59 in the mile and 10:07.16 in the two-mile.

Holota picked at Middle Creek: Nic Holota is the new boys’ lacrosse coach at Middle Creek. Holota has been part of lacrosse’s growth in Wake County for years, serving as the head coach at Southeast Raleigh, assistant coach at Holly Springs and once owned a lacrosse equipment store.

NSCAA scholar: Wakefield’s Kat McDonald was one of 48 players named to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s High School Scholar All-America Team. McDonald, who will play at Duke in the fall, was one of four N.C. players on the list, including Mary Love Taylor of Wilson Fike, who will also play at Duke.

Lacrosse All-Americans: Recent graduates Jacob Kintz of Middle Creek, Daniel Allred of Orange and Bennett Allen of Enloe made the U.S. Lacrosse all-academic team members.

Making the U.S. Lacrosse All-American team were Riverside’s C.J. Carpenter, Apex’s Chandler Besser and Sean Seaver, East Chapel Hill’s Ellis Llewellyn and Chris Cox and Cardinal Gibbons’ Nick Forbes, Stephen Albright, Christopher Lappin and Kevin McKendry.

Besser, Forbes, Lappin, Llewellyn, Seaver, McKendry along with Apex’s Jack Hayden, Athens Drive’s Peyton Smith, Middle Creek’s Jack Diebolt, Ravenscroft’s McLean Voelkel and Drew Davis and Durham Academy’s Alex Bassil were named to the USA Today all-state team.

Youth golf: Cardinal Gibbons rising sophomore Riley Smyth shot a 3-under to tie for third in Tuesday’s Carolina Golf Association’s 49th Twin States Junior Girls Championship at the Chapel Hill Country Club. Northern Durham rising senior Sarah Spicer tied for sixth while twin sister Jessica tied with Lee County’s Siranon “Muk” Shoomee for eighth.

The championship was broken up into flights after the first round. Smyth missed the cutoff for the championship flight, but finished first in the “flight 1” while her Gibbons classmate Hailey Freedman was tied for third.

In the third flight, Green Hope graduate Meghan Symonds finished one shot ahead of Fuquay-Varina grad Catherine Ashworth to win. Samantha Bennett, a rising senior at Wake Forest, placed third.

Piercy settles in at East Wake: Tony Piercy, the first head baseball coach at Heritage, has taken over the reins at East Wake. Piercy is already coaching the Warriors’ Central Carolina Scholastic Summer League team.

At Heritage, Piercy led the Huskies to records of 19-6 and 17-10 in his final two years. East Wake hasn’t posted a winning record since 2011 but is off to a 6-1 start in CCSSL play.

“They’re hungry for success and they’re very coachable in that regard,” Piercy said. “I’m glad we’ve gotten a little bit of success because they’re starting to build on that.”

This story was originally published July 5, 2015 at 9:10 PM with the headline "Prep notebook: Jack Conley says he will decline Boston Red Sox."