By BRET H. MCCORMICK, Journal Sports
Alexandria is home to two of the best discus throwers in Louisiana.
They don’t just live in the same city. Even better, they reside in the same house.
Alexandria Senior High’s Hunter Rivet, a senior two-sport athlete who started on the Trojans’ football offensive line, owns the top Louisiana high-school discus throw during the 2024 outdoor season.
Younger brother Carter, an eighth-grader at Caroline Dormon Junior High, has the top discus and shot put marks among all middle-schoolers in the state.
Discus has become a family passion and a way for the Rivet brothers to bond. Hunter, who learned about throwing the discus by doing research with his dad, Doug, has become a de facto coach for Carter, sharing all of his learned knowledge with his younger brother.
“We spend a lot of time doing disc, talking disc, even shot, jav(elin), hammer,” Hunter said. “I just like all the throwing events.”
Hunter, who finished third at last year’s Class 5A state track and field championships with a throw of 147 feet, 2 inches, began throwing the discus in eighth grade. By the end of that year, he was pushing nearly 100 feet with the 1-kilogram middle-school discus. A couple of years later, he was throwing in the 130s with the 1.6-kilogram high-school discus, hoping to continue developing into a college thrower.
This year, all of Hunter’s hard work – watching YouTube videos, studying great discus throwers, working in the weight room, perfecting his technique – has paid off.
He has been remarkably consistent during his senior season. In his first meet of the season, the Pineville Rebel Relays, Hunter set ASH’s school discus record with a throw of 169-1. He has thrown at least 165 feet at every meet and has broken his own school record two more times, throwing 169-8 at ASH’s Trojan Relays on March 15 and 171-3.5 at the Louisiana High School Coaches Association Meet of Champions at Southern University on April 5.
The honors student who carries a 4.2 GPA with a 31 ACT score and was a finalist for ASH’s Student of the Year award announced his commitment to throw the discus at Louisiana Tech on Monday.
Hunter has, at most, three track meets left in his high-school career, starting with today’s District 2-5A meet at Ruston.
He has won all eight of his discus events this season, and he is the favorite to win district, regionals and the Class 5A state title. His best toss in the shot put – 51-7, set last week at Scotlandville – is the second-best throw in the state this year, even though he just picked up the event this past summer.
Over the next three meets, Hunter said his goal is to win a state title in the discus and to extend his own school record as close to 180 feet as possible. He’s hoping that Carter doesn’t break that record next year as a freshman, something he’s already accepted will happen eventually.
“He’s trying to set that ASH record high for me to beat,” Carter said. “If he sets it really high, I have to be even better.”
“I’m very happy with where I’m at,” Hunter said. “I’m not content because obviously there’s more I’d like to achieve over the next three weeks. I’ve accomplished the goals I set.”
Carter, who is also a standout in the classroom with a 4.0 GPA, has the top middle-school throw in Louisiana in both the discus (194-7) and the shot put (52-6), and the expectation is he will surpass all of Hunter’s numbers, possibly as soon as next year.
First of all, at 6-foot-1 and about 190 pounds, he’s much bigger than Hunter was in eighth grade. (Hunter currently is about 6-1 and 225 pounds, but he said he enrolled at ASH weighing only 140 pounds.) Carter started throwing the discus earlier, in sixth grade as opposed to eighth, and he’s been competing with his older brother, in the weight room and the throwing ring, for multiple years.
Carter has thrown the middle-school discus more than 100 feet farther than his older brother did at the same age, and while practicing with the high-school discus consistently throws in the 140s and 150s.
“He’s trying to keep up with me,” Hunter said. “He doesn’t see the four-year age gap. It’s just, ‘if he can do it, I can do it.’ He’s very advanced in that mentality.”
Carter has been the beneficiary of all of the family’s research, which allowed him to accelerate his pace in the event. He is “very technically sound,” Hunter said, and has four more years to improve upon a throwing technique that is already “very comparable” to Hunter’s.
He believes his little brother can become one of the top college discus prospects in the country for the Class of 2028, and he hopes that Carter can break the Class 5A state record of 197-2, set by Ruston’s Larry Jones in 2006, and the overall composite record of 201-1, set by Catholic-New Iberia’s Tommy Killeen in 2005.
“I’m excited to see what he’s gonna do,” Hunter said. “I’m ready to see what he’s gonna throw. I expect him to beat my records. I’d be disappointed if I have anything left.”
“The No. 1 thing I need to do is just get stronger – a lot stronger,” Carter said. “My technique, it’s not up there yet, but in four years time, I can get up there. But I need to get stronger.”
The boys’ mother, Olivia, said watching her sons bond over a shared passion “means everything to me” and is “an answered prayer.”
“Hunter sets high expectations for himself, and he pushes Carter to exceed those expectations and be better than he is,” she said. “Not just in discus, but in everything. Carter is Hunter’s protégé. He is a good big brother and role model to Carter, and really to all kids. Carter follows his footsteps, but is also creating his own journey. They are exceptionally bonded as brothers, but also best friends.”
In addition to the hours the brothers spend together weekly practicing at the ring they constructed at home and watching video, Hunter also spearheaded a project to leave the ASH track and field program in a better position for his brother to inherit, helping to install a new discus ring at the school.
“We did the research. We found the ring. We got it ordered,” Hunter said. “We had some complications, but eventually we got it in. A lot of manual labor, doing concrete, the poles, all that type of stuff. The hard part was laying it out. There’s a lot of math involved, getting these poles in the right spot because it really matters.”
Carter, who has traveled to all of Hunter’s meets this year and is an unofficial member of the Trojans’ throwing squad, said he’s excited to utilize the new ring and thankful that his older brother is so supportive of him.
“I’m just very grateful to be in the position I’m in,” Carter said.
