'Dogs bark to second place finish at SIRR meet

The Harrisburg High School boys' track and field team took home eight first place finishes and placed second overall at last week's Southern Illinois River-To-River Conference meet in Sparta.
Herrin won the event with 186 points, while the Bulldogs were second with 128 points.
Murphysboro was third with 118 points, while Benton (58), Massac County (57) and West Frankfort (30) rounded out the field.
"Any coach would be pleased with how our kids performed," Harrisburg head coach Zach Cox said. "There is nothing they could've done to finish on top. We competed 18 kids today to Herrin's 2 and that was the difference in the meet. We won eight events to their five but they hammered us with their second and third place finishes. This has never been a problem but our numbers have dropped off the last couple years and its hurt our success. The kids we have are talented and they are who I am invested in. The sectional meet will be a better meet for us because of our quality and I'll take quality over quantity any day of the week."
Niko Neal become the first four individual event winner in conference history as the Bulldog senior won the 100 meters (11.43), the 200 meters (22.79), the 110 high hurdles (15.09) and the 300 intermediate hurdles (41.30), while his time in the 200 meters was a personal record.
Jordan Bartok won his first conference title in the discuss with a throw of 144-feet, while Kody Cavender was a repeat champion in the pole vault, clearing 11-feet.
The freshmen 4x200 meter relay team of Noah Thanxton, Jesse Lawler, Trenton Case and Bentley Linch took first, while the 4x400 meter relay team of Dallas Schmidt, Darnell Boone, Lawler and Thaxton took top honors with a time a time of 3:41.29.
"Niko is an outstanding track athlete who can do different things," Cox said. "He is the first SIRR athlete to win four individual events that I can find in previous results. Also, I was very happy to see Jordan Bartok get his first individual championship. He has been a constant in our athletics for a few years now and he will be missed. Kody Cavender is a repeat champ and has a great shot to go to state as a junior. 
"Finally, I can't say enough about our freshman group.  Trenton Case, Noah Thaxton, Jesse Lawler, and Bentley Linch won the Freshman Only 4x200 relay easily and the next race Dallas Schmidt ran a PR for third place in the 400 meters. Finishing up the day we took the varsity 4x400 with three freshman (Schmidt, Thaxton, Lawler).  The future is very bright if these guys will buy in to what were trying to accomplish here."
The relay team of Schmidt, Lawler, Case and Seth Thai were second in the 4x800 with a time of 9:20, while Zach Gibbs was second in the shot put with a toss of 47-feet-3.
Schmidt was third in the 400 meters with a time PR time of 53.23, while Will Gribble had a fourth place finish in the discus with a PR of 119-feet. Bartok was also fourth in the shot put with a toss of 45-feet-9. The 4x100 relay team of Chris Williams, Linch, Boone and Thaxton was fourth with a time of 46.62. The 4x200 team of Williams, Cavender, Sebastian Barton and Boone were fourth with a time of 1:40.89 and Thai was fourth in the 800 meters with a time of 2:16.
Thaxton took fifth in the long jump, going 18-feet-5 and Linch was fifth in the 110 high hurdles with a time PR time of 17.34.
Other finishers included Bradyn Whiting (Pole Vault, 8-feet), Caleb Lindsey (3200 meters, 13:01), Darnell Boone (100 meters, 12:09), Christian Oliver (800 meters, 2:38) and Justin Womack (1600 meters, 5:46).