2023 Boys All-Area Track and Field: Harless has heralded season: Russell junior, Helton cross season finish line with honors
Jul. 20—CANNONSBURG — Russell's David Harless's list of track and field accomplishments is almost as long as his throwing distance.
He won the discus event (164 feet, 7 inches) at the KTCCCA Area 7 event and the shot put event (55 feet, 9 inches) at the Class 2A, Region 6 meet. But the real crown jewel for Harless was taking the 2A state championship discus event by sending the disc soaring for a personal best 168 feet, 9 inches.
"Winning state was the best thing about this season, for sure," Harless said. "It was a big accomplishment."
The only time he didn't win a discus event this season was at the Class 2A, Region 6 meet, where he came in second place, giving him eight first-place finishes this year. The junior's consistency and stellar performances in the field events earned him The Daily Independent All-Area Track and Field Athlete of the Year.
Harless was also named to the All-State First Team.
"It feels pretty good," Harless said of the accomplishment. "I feel like I could've done better in shot put, but I pulled through with the discuss."
"He's phenomenal," Russell coach Chris Holbrook added. "He's a top-notch kid. You root for him not just in the ring but in life. He's the perfect kid to coach."
The accolades didn't come without some struggles. Harless said the biggest obstacles often came from within.
"I definitely had to overcome some mental block," Harless said. "I was putting too much pressure on myself this season. I just have to not think about it and have fun."
Perhaps the most impressive detail about all of this is the fact that Harless isn't done with his high school career yet. The soon-to-be senior Red Devil still has more on his to-do list as he enters his final year at this stage of his career.
"There's definitely more competition coming up," Harless said. "You've got East Carter kids stepping up, Greenup County kids stepping up, so it's going to be competitive. I want to repeat at State, but it'll take a lot of practice."
For Raceland coach Randy Helton, he had several contributors that kept the Rams on track this year.
"This season was very successful," Helton said. "You can't win a regional championship or anything without depth. You're going to get some first and second-place guys, but your third through eighth-place guys that'll win the meet for you. From that standpoint, it was a total team effort and was why we won this year."
The team's efforts blew the competition out of the water in the Class 1A, Region 7 meet, racking up 147.5 points, 54.5 more than second place. Helton's crew took home four first-place finishes at the meet. He received Coach of the Year honors after Raceland's strong finish.
"Being able to come back and win another championship was a big accomplishment," Helton said. "The years that we hadn't won, we'd been there and been second, but we didn't have that depth. This year we got more guys out and had several talented guys to blend in with what I call the blue-collar guys."
"We had plenty of guys over-achieve," Helton added. "They just kept getting better as the year went along. You know going into a season you have a core of guys that'll get the job done, but then you have question marks all over the place after that. Those question marks ended up doing some really good stuff for us."
Helton's Rams team placed eight boys on this year's team, the highest mark of any school, after battling injuries.
The Rams representatives on this year's team are Brody Austin, Cam Bell, Evan Burroughs, Cole Conlon, Jules Farrow, Mason Lykins, Ty Tyson, and Christian Waugh.
"A lot of people talk about injuries, but for us nagging things like hamstrings and stuff like that just lingered," Helton said. "And that's where the depth of this team came in handy. If you don't have that depth, you're messing up a relay or watering stuff down because you had no choice. This year we could survive an injury here and there and still be competitive."
Burroughs won the discus event at the Class 1A, Region 7 meet with 121 feet, 5 inches. He was selected to the First Team All-State. At the Class A state championships, he came in second and posted the second-best discus distance in his region (141 feet, 9 inches).
Farrow had the best long jump distance in the area at 20 feet, 11 inches. Farrow took the long jump competition at the Region 7 meet (20 feet, 9.75 inches) and had a top-five finish (20 feet, 5 inches) in the event at State. He also had the second-best distance in the Class 1A, Region 7 triple jump (41 feet).
Conlon had three first-place results in the 110-meter hurdles and pole vault. He finished in the top five seven different times in 300 meters this year.
Lykins had the best high jump (6 feet, 2 inches) mark along with Greenup County's Eli Adkins this season.
Waugh had multiple top-five times in the 100, 200 and 400-meter events this season. Tyson's 100-meter time was only .04 seconds behind the fastest time this season. He placed first in the event earlier this year and multiple top-three finishes inthe 200 meters.
Austin, Bell, Tyson, and Waugh were also part of Raceland's relay team this season. The team won the 4x100 relay (45.43) at the Class A, Region 7 meet.
Greenup had the second-most members on the All-Area team with Eli Adkins, Drew Boggs, Bryson Chandley, Ike Henderson, Waylon Perkins, Brody Stevens, and Brock Thomas.
Adkins won the high jump competition at the Class 2A, Region 6 meet with a distance of 6 feet, two inches, which was the longest mark for anyone this season in the area.
Thomas won the long jump (19 feet, 9.25 inches) and the triple jump (40 feet, 10 inches) at the KTCCCA Area 7 Championship. He finished first three times in the long jump, four times in the triple jump and placed second at the Region 6 meet in the high jump.
Boggs had the fastest time in the 300-meter hurdles (41.29). That time was posted at the 2A state track meet, which was a top-five finish.
Stevens claimed a first-place finish in the 800-meters along with a second-place finish in the long jump this year.
Henderson had the third-best 100-meter hurdle time (17.22). He posted third-place finishes in the 300-meter hurdles at the BRAG and EKC meets and a second-place result in the pole vault at BRAG.
Chandley, Perkins, Boggs, and Stevens were part of the Musketeers' relay team, which had the fastest 4x400 time (3.34.59) among area teams.
Boyd County claimed five spots on the list—Mason Monroe, Mason Newsome, Ayden Riddle, Rolen Sanderson, and Adam Sworski.
Sanderson won the 400-meter dash (52.38) at the Class 2A, Region 6 meet, as well as at the KTCCCA Area 7 Championship (53.79). The latter event also saw Sanderson win the 800-meter race (2:02.76). Sanderson qualified for state, where he posted the fastest 400-meter dash time (51.79) for area racers this season.
Newsome won the 800-meter (2:01.99) at the Class 2A, Region 6 meet, posted the best 1600-meter time, and had top-five times in the 800 (2:01.27) and 3200 (10:19.08) meter races in the area.
Riddle had the second-best 3200-meter time (10:13.34) in Class 2A, Region 6.
Sworski claimed the area's best 100-meter hurdle time (16.77) and the fourth-best 300-meter hurdle time (44.66) this season in the Class 2A, Region 6.
Monroe, Riddle, Sanderson, and Sworski were part of the Lions' 4x800 relay team, which had the best area time (8:25.52).
Ashland's Blake Elam, Brandon Houston, Terell Jordan, and Ataveon Thomas were on the All-Area team.
Houston won the triple jump (40 feet, 3 inches) at the Class 2A, Region 6 meet. At the 2A state meet, Houston posted a Class 2A, Region 6 best in the triple jump (41-9.25). Houston also had the second-best time in the area and a first-place finish in the 100-meter (11.4).
Elam, Jordan, Houston and Thomas made up the 4x100 relay team. which posted the top time (44.36) at the Region 6 meet.
East Carter had a pair of athletes on the team, Allen Cooper and Ryland Pfau.
Cooper won the discus competition at the Class 2A, Region 6 meet (163 feet, 8 inches). Cooper went on to the 2A State meet and posted a personal best of 163 feet, 9 inches in the discus event, which was enough for a third-place finish.
Pfau had the best 100-meter time in the area at 11.37. He had six first-place finishes in the 100 and 200-meter events this season.
Lewis County, Rowan County, and West Carter joined Russell with having one name on the All-Area list.
Lewis County's All-Area athlete is Ethan Johnson. Johnson won the 3200-meter race at both the KTCCCA Area 7 meet (10:16.80) and the Class 2A, Region 6 meet (10:17.38). At the 2A State meet, Johnson posted an area-best time of 10:10.63 in the 3200-meter.
The Vikings sent Cameron Cross to the All-Area team. The eighth-grader had the top pole vault mark in the area at 11 feet, 6 inches. The measurement was good enough for second at the Region 6 event.
Comets round out the list with Dwaylon Dean. Dean won the 300-meter hurdle event (42.68) at the Class 1A, Region 7 meet. The time was the best 300-meter hurdle time in the region. He also finished first in that event at the Rice/Stacey Classic. Dean had a first-place finish in the 110-meter hurdle at the EKC Championships.
The team was compiled by top time and top finishes at area events. The Daily Independent sports staff selected the Player and Coach of the Year.
2023 Boys All-Area Track and Field Team
Eli Adkins (Greenup County)
Brody Austin (Raceland)
Bryson Chandley (Greenup County)
Cole Conlon (Raceland)
Allen Cooper (East Carter)
Cameron Cross (Rowan County)
Cam Bell (Raceland)
Drew Boggs (Greenup County)
Evan Burroughs (Raceland)
Dwaylon Dean (West Carter)
Blake Elam (Ashland)
Jules Farrow (Raceland)
David Harless (Russell)
Ike Henderson (Greenup County)
Brandon Houston (Ashland)
Ethan Johnson (Lewis County)
Terell Jordan (Ashland)
Mason Lykins (Raceland)
Mason Monroe (Boyd County)
Mason Newsome (Boyd County)
Waylon Perkins (Greenup County)
Ryland Pfau (East Carter)
Ayden Riddle (Boyd County)
Rolen Sanderson (Boyd County)
Adam Sworski (Boyd County)
Brody Stevens (Greenup County)
Ataveon Thomas (Ashland)
Brock Thomas (Greenup County)
Ty Tyson (Raceland)
Christian Waugh (Raceland)
ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
David Harless (Russell)
COACH OF THE YEAR
Randy Helton (Raceland)
HONORABLE MENTION
Asher Adkins (Ashland), Ben Caron (Ashland), Hunter Gerike (Lewis County), Trevor Gibson (Rowan County), Xander Jenkins (Raceland), Sam Lyons (Ashland), Izack Messer (East Carter), Luke Pridemore (Russell), Dustin Ralph (Lewis County), Alex Russell (Lewis County), Connor Taylor (Greenup County), Wesley Wiburn (Lewis County).
(606) 326-2658 — wadans@dailyindependent.com
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