It was a big moment for the Pickerington High School North boys track and field team when it captured the OCC-Ohio Division championship this spring.

According to coach Dave Spring, the importance of the title was two-fold, as it helped North win the Ralph Young All-Sports trophy in the OCC-Ohio for the third consecutive year.

"Excelling at one sport is fantastic," said Spring, whose team scored 36 points in the Division I state meet June 1 and 2 at Ohio State to tie Lancaster for second behind Lakewood St. Edward (48). "However, when you're able to (excel in multiple sports) across the board for the last (three) years, it speaks highly for the athletics director (Mark Aprile), the coaches and the athletes. A lot of these guys participate in multiple sports and that helps out the whole athletics program."

The All-Sports award goes to the school that performs the best in the OCC's 16 common sports over the course of a school year. Eight points are awarded for finishing first, seven for placing second, six for finishing third, and so on.

The award, now in its third year, is named in honor of Young, the longtime Ohio Capital Conference secretary and a retired athletics director at Delaware. He has been a track official for 38 years and manages basketball tournaments at the sectional, district and regional levels for the Ohio High School Athletic Association.

Young also serves as treasurer of the OHSAA's Central District.

North scored 107 of a possible 128 points to finish first in the OCC-Ohio standings. Gahanna (99.5) was second, followed by Pickerington Central (87.5), Reynoldsburg (72.5), Lancaster (70.5), Grove City (68), Newark (43.5) and Groveport (27.5).

The other winners were Dublin Coffman (110.5) in the OCC-Central, New Albany (104) in the OCC-Capital and Olentangy Liberty (97) in the OCC-Cardinal.

In addition to boys track, North won outright OCC-Ohio titles in boys cross country, boys golf, boys tennis and girls volleyball during the 2011-12 school year. Finishing as league runners-up for the Panthers were the boys soccer, wrestling, girls basketball, girls cross country, girls soccer, girls tennis and girls track teams.

"I was so glad to hear that we won that (award) again, but it certainly isn't surprising," girls volleyball coach Kris Kern said. "We have a lot of quality programs at North and the kids just fed off excelling from year to year and sport to sport."