After a successful four years of being on the Mount Gilead track and field team — a period of time that ended with him running in the Division III state meet — Quade Harris will now move on to Walsh University, where he hopes to trim a few more seconds off his times in order to enjoy the same sort of success.

Harris had a few reasons for wanting to attend Walsh.

“I loved the town of Canton and the coach really appealed to me and it was where my family went to college, so I guess I liked the Canton vibe,” he said.

It wasn’t an easy decision for him to make, though.

“It was a hard decision because of the cost of college nowadays and there are so many team that recruit you,” he said. “All the coaches try to give you the best spiel they can give you, but Canton gave me the best one they could give me.”

Harris is considering majoring in exercise science, but added that I could end up in nursing. He added that he’s looking forward to the college experience.

“I’m excited to get to know my new team, compete at a high level and get a really good education there,” he said.

At Walsh, Harris expects to mainly run in the 400 and 200. He feels his experiences with the Mount Gilead track program can only be of benefit to him at the next level.

“Our team is very competitive, so I’ll be looking to try to become a conference runner from the start and then hopefully excel into a national runner there,” he said.

However, he knows it won’t be easy to reach that level.

“It’ll take me probably around a 47 in the 400 meters, which will be really tough for me,” he explained. “It’s going to be hard, but I’m going to try to do it.”

He noted that he’ll miss his teammates and coaches at Mount Gilead, saying they played a huge role in him getting to where he is.

“I’m going to miss my teammates and how we really bonded,” he said. “I’m going to keep those friendships. And then my coaches, Lauren Huelsman and Jake Hayes. They really influenced me, so I’ll be contacting them a lot.”

Rob Hamilton can be reached at 419-946-3010, ext. 1807. Connect with him on Twitter at @SportsMCS