Spruce Pine athlete brings home 2 gold medals
SPRUCE PINE — Luke Herring, a senior student athlete at Hackleburg High School, earned golds for discus and shot put at the state track meet in Cullman.
“I was happy with how discus went, throwing a personal record of 174”10’ at state is what you train to do,” Herring said.
“For shot, the rain and mud were an issue, but I was still able to get enough traction to throw 56”11.75, which is three feet short of my best this year,” Herring said. “Bringing two gold medals back to Hackleburg was the plan from day one of this season.”
A senior, he will be attending the University of Central Arkansas on a scholarship for track and field beginning in August. He plans to major in cybersecurity.
“I will throw shot, discus and hammer at Central Arkansas this fall, and I am looking forward to competing at the NCAA Division 1 level,” Herring added.
Adam McCarley, head boys track coach at Hackleburg High School, said Herring won discus and shot put at the state Class 1A championship for the second year in a row, breaking the state record in discus.
“He’s had a phenomenal career, and he’s the epitome of hard work,” McCarley said. “He just outworks everybody. He shows up every day and works hard. They all look up to him. His work ethic inspires everybody else. He does track year-round. He shows that hard work pays off.”
His mother, Jody Herring, a volunteer coach at the school, said she’s “excited” about his performance and what the future holds.
She said her son is also the number one hammer thrower in Alabama, something that’s not part of the high school track competitions.
“He will have a hammer coach, Ryan Davis, when he starts college this fall,” his mother said said.
He started track and field when Hackleburg started a team while he was in the eighth grade.
“Luke’s very focused,” his mother said. “He’s one of the hardest workers. He puts the extra time in, the extra hours at the gym, extra hours in the circle.”
Both Luke and his mom are both citizens with the United States and Canada. This week, he’s trying out for Team Canada.
Twenty athletes under age 20 will be chosen to compete in the U20 K&M championship games, which will take place in Paraguay this year. His mother said this is one of the smaller international competitions.
“He has a lot of competitions in Maine and Canada, so that’s why he’s going there,” his mother said. “It’s sort of a steppingstone toward international competition on a bigger scale.”
