Geneva School junior Duke Carpenter, a 6-5, 254-pound football prospect, unleashed a historic state championship discus throw of 190-feet, 8-inches on Wednesday in the FHSAA Class 1A track & field meet in Jacksonville. That mark, made on his first of four attempts, was 18 feet better than the second placer and is the second best in Orlando area history.
It was hard to believe — even for Carpenter, whose previous best was 176-0.
“I knew it was a PR (personal record). It felt really good. But when I heard the mark I thought it was a fluke,” Carpenter said.
Nope. He proved it was not a lucky fling when he added a 187-4 throw, which would have ranked No. 5 on the area all-time list.
Carpenter, a football defensive end/tight end and powerhouse power forward in basketball, credited the big stage at UNF for his huge improvement.
“You know how much adrenaline can change everything,” he said. “I think the difference was just being really excited. That made me speed things up (in his spin and throw). That generated a lot more power than I ever had before.”
Carpenter also scored a personal best of 51-7 to place a close second in the shot put.
This week’s exhilaration continues. Carpenter was scheduled to fly out to California on Thursday night to take his first official college football recruiting visit at Stanford.
“I’m not sure what to expect. But I think it will be really exciting. I’ve never been to California,” Carpenter said.
Rising senior Duke Carpenter, a football standout for Geneva School, is taking a college recruiting visit to Stanford this week. He won the Class 1A state discus championship on Wednesday. (Chris Hays/Orlando Sentinel)
His offer list includes UCF, along with Army, Navy, Kansas, UConn, Stanford, Wake Forest and Ivy League schools Dartmouth, Harvard and Yale. Carpenter boasts a 4.1 grade point average and 1440 SAT score.
With coaches from those schools and others stopping by campus, along with spring football practices, April and May have been hectic for Carpenter.
“It has been really busy with football, track and school going on at the same time, but I’ve had a lot of fun getting to meet a bunch of different coaches. It’s been a little stressful, especially with missing a lot of class. But I’m working on being grateful for the chances I’ve been given.”
He led Geneva’s fledgling 2-10 football team in tackles per game (6.9) and sacks with 13. In basketball he averaged 15.1 points and 11.3 rebounds for a 20-6 team.
Former Lyman High great Adam Shuler, also a football standout, set the area discus record with a 192-9 throw to win the 4A state title in 2015. Shuler played three seasons of college football at West Virginia, then two as a graduate transfer to UF.
Carpenter’s winning fling is also second in 1A state meet history, which dates to 1946. That record, 193-10, was set by Justing Osking of Fort Pierce John Carroll in 2011.
Foundation Academy senior Lee Peters repeated as the girls 100-meter dash champion with an 11.76-second time. The Tennessee signee also duplicated her 2025 second-place showing in the 200 with a 24.13 time. And she anchored Foundation’s 4×100 relay team, which placed second at 48.95. The Lions finished seventh in the girls team standings.
Geneva’s Baker Costar, also a junior football player, was runner-up in the boys javelin with a mark of 191 feet, 4 inches. Max Demo, also a junior, cleared 13-feet, 3½-inches to place third in the pole vault as the Knights finished sixth in the team standings. That was the area best in a meet won by Holy Trinity of Melbourne.
Geneva junior Julia Cota was runner-up in the girls shot put (39-3¾).
The 2A state meet was Thursday at the University of North Florida. The 3A meet is Friday, followed by Saturday’s 4A meet.
Stephen M. Dowell / Orlando Sentinel
Adam Shuler set the Orlando area discus record as a Lyman High senior in 2015. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)
Discus top 10
Here are the all-time bests in the discus by Orlando area boys:
192-9 Adam Shuler, Lyman, 2015
190-8 Duke Carpenter, Geneva, 2026
188-9 Danny Hallaver, Colonial, 1976
188-2 Brett Williams, Osceola, 1998
185-9 Jamal Whitaker, Apopka, 2014
185-5 Robert Sippio, St. Cloud, 1980
184-6 Marc Rankin, Winter Park, 1988
182-11 Tommy Sparks, Edgewater, 1976
182-9 Alex Thomas, Boone, 1997
181-5 Hunter Hummel, Celebration, 2018
Cypress Creek’s Alondra Rodriguez is motivated for FHSAA state track & field