Huron wins team state title

DAYTON — Fifty years ago, a group of Huron boys track athletes delivered the school its first team state track championship. On Saturday, a group just as mighty brought home the Tigers' second. Huron hoisted the Division II OHSAA team championship trophy at Welcome Stadium in Dayton on Saturday afternoon after accumulating 40 team points, four ahead of runner-up Glenville. "Holy cow," Huron coach Mike Lemponen said. "You never try to do that, but you look at the list, and you're like, 'Hey, if everything goes right, you've got a shot.'" The Tigers reached the top of the state by placing in five D-II finals on Saturday. It started with state championships in the 4x100- and 4x200-meter relays, run by the same quartet in the same order: junior Austin Brunow, senior Andrew Delaney, sophomore Joe Schaeffer and senior Beau Harkelroad. Harkelroad added 16 points to the team score by finishing as state runner-up in both individual hurdles races the 110 and 300 meters. The 300 hurdles required a run-off after Harkelroad was knocked down by a competitor's hurdle in the original running of the race while en route to second place, and in the run-off, he finished second again. "It's awesome," Harkelroad said. "Everyone played a huge part in it. It took every single person." Schaeffer provided the difference-making team points in the 200-meter dash. The sophomore placed fifth, worth four points, the margin between Glenville and Huron. Huron's boys also had sophomore Sage Edgerly-Bork in competition at state. He came in 17th in the 3200 meters. When the Tigers returned back to Huron Memorial Stadium on Saturday evening, they broke out the 1974 trophy. It had company to meet. "The cool thing about is it's on the 50-year anniversary of the only other boys state title," Lemponen said. "That's pretty cool. A moment that I will never forget and might never happen again."