Counting # of comparisons in a quick sort and printing them

For part of a homework, my program has to output the number of comparisons of data elements made by a quick sort and an insertion sort.  I got the insertion sort to work. Not so the quick sort.

I have added a counter to the quickSort method provided, but it is in a loop and just keeps printing forever. I have tried putting the counter elsewhere and get an "unreachable" error.  
Would you please look at my code and tell me where I have messed up?
I can provide the program where I call the quickSort function if that helps.

Many, many thanks for helping me get this straight!!
 Jo

//Quick sort algorithm.
  //Postcondition: list objects are in ascending order.
  public void quickSort(T[] list, int length)
  {
    recQuickSort(list, 0, length - 1);
  }//end quickSort
  
  //Method to partition the list between first and last.
  //The pivot is choosen as the middle element of the list.
  //This method is used by the recQuickSort method.
  //Postcondition: After rearranging the elements,
  //               according to the pivot, list elements
  //               between first and pivot location - 1,
  //               are smaller the the pivot and list
  //               elements between pivot location + 1 and
  //               last are greater than or equal to pivot.
  //               The position of the pivot is also
  //               returned.
  private int partition(T[] list, int first, int last)
  {
    T pivot;
    
    int smallIndex;
    int counter = 0;         //initialize counter
    swap(list, first, (first + last) / 2);
    
    pivot = list[first];
    smallIndex = first;
    
    for (int index = first + 1; index <= last; index++)
    { 
      Comparable<T> compElem = (Comparable<T>) list[index];
      counter=counter+1;        //increment counter
      
      if (compElem.compareTo(pivot) < 0)
      {
        smallIndex++;
        swap(list, smallIndex, index);
        
      }

    }

        System.out.print(counter);   // print out number of comparisons
     System.out.print("The total number of comparisons in the quickSort was  ");
    swap(list, first, smallIndex);
    
    return smallIndex;
        

} 
  //end partition

//Method to sort the elements of list between first
//and last using quick sort algorithm,
//Postcondition: list elements between first and last
//               are in ascending order.
private void recQuickSort(T[] list, int first, int last)
{
 
  if (first < last)
  {
    int pivotLocation = partition(list, first, last);
    recQuickSort(list, first, pivotLocation - 1);
    recQuickSort(list, pivotLocation + 1, last);
    
  }

}//end recQuickSort

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