New track broken in with Du Quoin Open

DU QUOIN - The resurfaced track at Van Metre Field was finally put to use Monday and lots of feet broke it in.

With the weather causing havoc on area teams' schedules, the Du Quoin Open boys track meet suddenly became very popular and 11 teams showed up for the event that lasted nearly four hours even with a quickly-ran schedule.

"It was a good meet for us," said Du Quoin coach Derek Beard. "A lot of good competition and a lot of bigger schools came in. It worked out pretty good for everybody. The weather has been a struggle for everybody."

Marion, one of the teams that added the meet to get work in, was the winner with 134 points followed by Mt. Vernon (102) and the host Indians (88) with Pinckneyville a distant fourth (55) ahead of Murphysboro (42) and Sesser-Valier (41).

Also competing were Salem, Carmi, Wayne City, Christopher and Steeleville.

Du Quoin's athletes were just happy to run on their own track.

"We just had our track redone and this was the first day we've been able to get on it," Beard said. "We've been running in the hallways and the gym just trying to get ready. So we had a pretty good day really. I'm happy with it."

Westly Milam had a good day for the Indians with wins in the 100 dash (11.69) and 200 dash (23.86) after placing third in the long jump (18-5). Milam also helped the 400 relay place second in 45.34 seconds.

Sophomore Dasani Edward, who was also a member of that relay, finished second in the triple jump at 40-2 behind Mt. Vernon's Evan Owens (44-8.25) and second in the long jump at 19-3 behind Marion's Jaden Lacy (21-7).

"Dasani had a good day," Beard said. "He's still young and inexperienced so hopefully he just continues to get better."

In the 110-meter hurdles, Du Quoin's Shamar Adams placed second (15.79) and Kyle Robinson was third (15.93) just behind Marion's Stuart Adkinson (15.13). Adams and Robinson were the other members of the 400 relay.

Mt. Vernon's Brody Rutherford won the 300-meter version in 41.79 just ahead of Pinckneyville's Stetson Lappin (42.13) with Adkinson placing fourth (44.09), Adams fifth (44.43) and Ronbinson eighth (47.07).

"That was a good event. Those guys need competition," Beard said. "They were up against some of the better runners in the area and now they've got experience running against them. So that was good for them."

Other notable finishes for the Indians came from Keenan Johnston in the pole vault (2nd, 11-0), Caleb Davis in the 400 (5th, 56.37), Ethan Zettler in 110 hurdles (17.39) and Jacob Green in the triple jump (6th, 37-2).

Pinckneyville's top finishes besides Lappin in the 300 hurdles came from Dalton Kitchen in the shot put (3rd, 46-0), Garrett Johnson in the 1,600 (4th, 4:52.30) and Noah Conner in high jump (5th, 5-10). The Panthers placed second in the 4x200 relay (1:41.31) and third in the 4x800 relay (8:55.93).