Tigers take the top spot

MILAN TWP. — Huron's team of Tigers pounced into first place to end Firelands Challenge's third round. And there's a major shuffle with seismic changes all across the leaderboard. Most notably: • Huron overtook Norwalk for first place. • Norwalk dropped into third • Port Clinton jumped from fifth to second place. Port Clinton beat out teams from Bellevue and Oak Harbor. By the halfway point, Port Clinton had more than double the scores of its opponents, finishing the contest with 59 points, the highest score out of all teams in the third round. Bellevue finished its round with 25 points, and Oak Harbor followed with 14. Norwalk went up against one of last year's co-champions, St. Mary Central Catholic High School in the third round. The Truckers led the Panthers in the first half of the match, but St. Mary eventually pulled ahead. St. Mary won with 42 points, Norwalk finished with 37, and Margaretta ended with 31. Huron's team went up against Perkins and New London in the third-round match. The Tigers not only took over the overall top ranking but also won their match with 49 points. Perkins followed with 38, and New London scored 22. Perkins dropped from its fourth-place overall standing to fifth place. Other match scores included: • St. Paul 39, Willard 31 and South Central 26 • Edison 33, Danbury 31 and Western Reserve 26 • Sandusky 22, Lakota 16 and Monroeville 7 At the end of each match, teams are allowed to appeal answers that were ruled incorrectly. Some team appeals are pending, so there may be slight adjustments to match scores. The top five teams and their cumulative scores after the third round are: 1. Huron 161 2. Port Clinton 156 3. Norwalk 152 4. St. Mary CC 147 5. Perkins 137 Firelands Challenge is an academic competition for local high schools organized by North Point Educational Service Center. The students compete to answer questions from numerous academic subjects.