Dark shines bright with state title, rising junior sets sights on more
Anderson County’s Luke Dark won the state title for shot put as a sophomore.
He completed his sophomore season with the Mavericks by posting an effort of 57 feet, 0.75 inches on the Volunteer State’s grand stage at Middle Tennessee State University’s Dean Hayes Stadium in Murfreesboro.
His mark in the Midstate was certainly an impressive way to complete a season that saw him achieve greatness and set school records.
But Dark, who said the state championship was a long time coming, makes it perfectly clear that he will work in the offseason in order to achieve more as a junior in 2025 and beyond.
“I’ve waited a long time to win a state championship,” Dark said. “I’ve worked all through middle school and never won one. This was big and it was exciting.”
Dark, however, wants more.
“I’m going back and I’m going to win it again and I’m going back to win it again as a senior,” he said. “I want to be a national champion and I want to be in the 70-foot club.
“It was exciting to win, but honestly, the feeling never changes. I want to win whenever I compete. At state, I actually had some pretty good throws,” he said.
Dark won one of two individual state championships for the Mavericks (and four for the school’s track and field programs), joining Vance Laster, who claimed the state title in the boys 3,200-meter run and Ava Moody.
Moody won both the 1,600 and 3,200-meter runs for the Lady Mavericks.
Dark said he is looking to dominate in the shot put competition.
But he also wants to make his mark in another event: he also competes in the discus. He flourishes in that discipline, but confesses that it has never been his favorite.
“A lot of people like the discus better,” he said. “They think that it’s more natural, but I don’t. I’ve never really liked it all that much.
“But I’ve been working with my coach and I want to win a state championship.”