Getting A lot Accomplished

The Harrisburg High School boys' track and field team finished fifth in a loaded field at last week's Harrisburg Invite.
Bulldogs' head coach Zach Cox said it was nice to regain the quality and competitiveness of the Invite, that of which it had a few years back.
"What a competitive meet we had this year," Cox said. "Several of the top athletes in the state competed here today and it was nice to see the invite regain the quality of several years back. We didn't necessarily set our lineup today to score points but wanted to get things ready for conference and let the seniors shine. You can't run track athletes hard everyday or it will break them down. The boys showed our quality today and that was the mission.  ext Thursday at the conference will be the time to load everyone up with multiple events and see where we stand at the end of the day."
There were several personal records set last Friday with Jordan Bartok throwing the discus 156-feet-10 for a second place finish and had a PR in the shot put with a throw of 47-feet-1.5 four a fourth place finish. Zach Gibbs had a second place finish in the shot put with a throw of 49-feet-4, also good enough for a PR. Niko Neal had a PR time of 14.54 in the 110 high hurdles for first place.
Neal had another first place finish, winning the 300 intermediate hurdles with a time of 39.27.
The 4x400 team of Darnell Boone, Dallas Schmidt, Noah Thaxton and Neal were second with a time of 3:33.04.
The freshmen/sophomore team of Jesse Lawler, Trenton Case, Thaxton and Schmidt took third in the 4x200 with a time of 1:38.86.
Fourth place finishes were award to JT Stone in the triple jump (37-feet-5) and Kody Cavender in the pole vault (12-feet-6).
A pair of fifth place finishes were awarded to the 4x800 meter relay team of Seth Thai, Lawler, Schmidt and Case (9:07) and Thaxton in the long jump (18-feet-4.5).
Stone took sixth in the long jump, going 18-feet-2.
"Jordan, Niko, and Seth all had PR's today at their last home meet which is special," Cox added. "Niko, Jordan, Kody Cavender, Zach Gibbs, and the 4x400 all had performances that are better than or close to the state qualifying marks. Our young kids continue to get better everyday and as long as we can keep them involved the next few years should be fun. I'm proud of these seniors and appreciate all their time and dedication more than they know." 
Marion won the event with a team score of 182 and Triad was second with 138 points. Mt. Vernon finished third with a score of 132.5 and Vienna was fourth with 80 points. Harrisburg rounded out the top five with 76.5 team points, while Herrin was sixth at 37.5 and Massac County was seventh with 33 points. Anna-Jonesboro took eighth with 24 points and Goreville was ninth with 20.5 points. Eldorado was 10th with six points and West Frankfort rounded out the field with five points.