Francom wins pole vault title for Tigers in AA

BRANDON — Huron senior Trent Francom matched his personal-best effort to win a Class AA state championship in the boys’ pole vault on Friday.
Despite feeling under the weather, Francom was able to clear 15-feet, 6 inches to match an effort from earlier in the season, which set a new HHS pole vault record. After edging Noah Sparks of Watertown by six inches for the top spot, he took aim at surpassing the all-time best vault in South Dakota history but came up empty on all three of his attempts at 16-2.
Francom led a strong field of vaulters for the Tigers on Friday. Travis Kleinsasser went 13-6 to finish third in the boys’ pole vault for Huron, while Shannon Katz cleared 11-0 to finish as the runner-up in the girls’ pole vault.

Clay Korkow was the only other placewinner for the Tigers on Friday, as he was sixth in the long jump at 21-3.25.
Deyona Little qualified for the finals of the 300-meter hurdles for Huron. She finished second in the prelims with a time of 46.87 seconds.
Huron’s boys’ medley relay team, which consists of  Korkow, Tye Evers, Tyler Lien and Brenden Corbett, narrowly missed reaching the finals. They were ninth with a time of 3:47.41.
The final day of the Class AA State Meet will begin today at 9 a.m. at Howard Wood Field in Sioux Falls.