Albany 5-sport athlete transitions to decathlon

By Sam Waller

Freshman year is a big adjustment for new college students.

Albany graduate Luke Ivy added to the level of difficulty during his first year at Rice University by expanding his athletic pursuits even more.

Ivy, who competed in football, basketball, baseball, tennis, and track in high school, signed with Rice for track. Then he took up the decathlon.

“The first year was a huge learning experience,” said Ivy, who competed in long jump, triple jump, and a variety of running events in high school. “It was a big adjustment at first, balancing the academics at Rice with the utter level of commitment it takes for D1 athletics compared to high school athletics. Even though I’m doing fewer sports, it feels like I’m still spending the same amount of time or even more.”

The 2022 Albany valedictorian handled the academic demands by carrying a 4.0 GPA his first two semesters. That earned him a spot on the President’s Honor Roll as well as the Conference USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll and the C-USA Academic Medal.

In the spring, he participated in five meets in individual events before competing in his first decathlon at the C-USA meet at Denton in May. The only freshman in the field, he finished ninth with 5,538 points. He finished first in the 1,500.

He also ran a leg on Rice’s 4x100 relay and competed in the individual long jump.

“I’m having a great time,” Ivy said of his new endeavor. “I really love it.”

The decathlon consists of 10 events spread over two days. Typically, the 100-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, and 400 meters are held the first day with 110 meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, and 1,500 meters the second.

“Having to learn all the different events is a big learning curve, but it’s a lot of fun to do something so different,” Ivy said. “Six of them were completely new to me – the high jump, 110 hurdles, javelin, discus, shot put, and pole vault.”

Athletes are given a 30-minute break between events.

“It’s pretty exhilarating learning something brand new,” Ivy said. “It was something I worked on all year trying to get to that point. It was great to see it all come together at our last meet.”

Ivy has spent his summer training under Albany coaches Rod Britting and Ryder Peacock, who both have strong track backgrounds. Britting won an NAIA national title in the pole vault at Wayland Baptist in 1991 and has tutored state champs in the event at Albany.

Peacock still ranks fourth on McMurry’s career high jump list after setting a school record in 2004.

“I really appreciate everything they’re helping me with,” Ivy said. “They’re giving their time, and it makes it a lot easier for me to learn the technical side of things in the events that were a struggle for me, learning them for the first time.”

Ivy is looking forward to a rather sedate fall schedule when he returns to Rice.

“We’ll still be training, and practice begins as soon as school starts,” he said. “It’ll probably be more conditioning instead of technical work on events up until about October. Then we’ll start hitting different events.”

The spring semester will include indoor meets before the outdoor season starts.

“I probably won’t compete in a multi-event until conference,” Ivy said. “That’s typically how it goes. I’ll compete in various individual events at invitational meets, then put it all together for conference.”