OHIO PREP POLL Harding atop season final Div. I rankings

None of the teams that led the poll in the first week were there at the end.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBUS -- None of the teams that topped the rankings in the initial Ohio Associated Press high school football poll of the 2003 season was first in its division when final results were released Tuesday.
Warren Harding (Division I), Avon Lake (II), Steubenville (III), Versailles (IV), Marion Pleasant (V) and Columbus Grove (VI) all moved up to No. 1 when top-ranked teams lost, and the schools secured their poll titles by finishing the regular season at 10-0.
Columbus Grove was the lone first-time winner, while Warren Harding and Marion Pleasant were the only teams to repeat as champions.
Marion Pleasant was the only 2002 poll champ to win a state title. Warren Harding lost the state championship game last year to Cincinnati Elder.
Steubenville tops Div. III
Steubenville, winner of its third poll title, didn't move up to No. 1 until the eighth and final week of media balloting. Warren Harding and Avon Lake both jumped to the top in the seventh week.
Versailles, which won its two other poll titles in Div. V, moved to the top of Div. IV in the sixth week by beating rival Coldwater, the previous top-ranked team and the Div.'s 2002 poll champ.
Marion Pleasant, now a five-time poll champ, and Columbus Grove both earned No. 1 rankings in the third week and held their top spots the rest of the way in the 57th year of the balloting.
Cleveland Benedictine, the only team to hold its No. 1 ranking through the first seven weeks, lost its regular-season finale to Lakewood St. Edward and ended up third in Div. III, 39 points behind Steubenville and nine worse than second-ranked Dover.
Div. IV's Versailles led first-place finishers with 348 points and a 70-point margin of victory over Clarksville Clinton-Massie.
Warren Harding (327) finished 34 points ahead of Mentor in Div. I, with Cincinnati Colerain in third. Avon Lake, which earned its other poll title in 2001, had a 22-point edge (330-308) on Columbus Brookhaven in Div. II. Marion Pleasant (341) was 50 points better than Sarahsville Shenandoah in Div. V. Columbus Grove (343) topped Norwalk St. Paul by 34 points in Div. VI.
Ignatius falls to eighth
In Div. I, seven-time poll champion Cleveland St. Ignatius lost its last two regular-season games to fall from first to a tie for eighth in the final rankings.
Among other top-ranked teams from the poll's first week, Macedonia Nordonia finished fifth in Div. II, Coldwater placed third in Div. IV, Delphos St. John's slipped to ninth in Div. V and Dola Hardin Northern was fifth in Div. VI.