Floydada senior Luke Holcombe puts his State-winning shot at the Texas UIL Track and Field Championships at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin on May 7, 2021. (Ben Jenkins/Press Pass Sports)
LUBBOCK – Saturday was a special day for West Texas A&M freshman Luke Holcombe by winning the Section B shot put event at the Texas Tech Shootout in the Sports Performance Center. The former Floydada Whirlwind released a collegiate personal best of 54′ 4” (16.56 meters) to win first place in a field of weightmen from North Texas, Texas A&M-Commerce, Incarnate Word, BYU, Texas State, Angelo State and South Plains College.
The performance elevated Holcombe to No. 2 in the indoor track and field standings of the Lone Star Conference in the shot put. WTAMU will compete in the Lone Star Conference indoor championships on February 26-27 in Tech’s Sports Performance Center. The LSC is made-up of colleges competing in the NCAA Division II including TAMU-Kingsville, TAMU-Commerce, Angelo State, Oklahoma Christian, Lubbock Christian, and UT-Tyler.
Holcombe appears to be adapting well from throwing the 16-pound shot put in college vs. the 12-pound shot in high school. Holcombe won the 2A State Championship in 2021 with a personal best in high school of 57′ 2.25”.
Holcombe is also competing in the collegiate weight throw during the indoor season. The weight is a 35-pound ball that is attached to a chain and a handle. He finished 10th in this event on Saturday that was against Division I colleges such as Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and others.
Holcombe has competed in three indoor meets at University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and then last weekend at Tech. He will have one more invitational indoor meet back in Lubbock this weekend, and then compete for the LSC Championships the last weekend of February at Tech.
WTAMU will begin its outdoor season in March where Holcombe will likely compete in the shot put, discus throw and possibly the javelin. He is currently 6’5” tall and weighs approximately 250-pounds with significant more muscle due to the weight lifting program he is on at WT.
