Spotlight on David Irving

As the throws coach at Duke last year, Michelle Clayton had four athletes qualify for the NCAA Regionals. But at the IC4A championships at Princeton in May her eye was drawn to a thrower on someone else's team.

David Irving was just a sophomore when Clayton first spotted him. His marks left him right around the middle of the field in both the hammer and the discus, but when she looked at the nearly 6-foot-8 inch product of New Hampshire's Manchester Memorial High School, what she saw wasn't how far he had thrown.

It was how far he was going to throw.

"I remember thinking to myself, 'That kid is talented. He has all the tools,' " she said. "From his frame and body I could see he's got thrower written all over him. I thought the sky was the limit for him."

Little did she know that a few short months later she would be coaching him.

It wasn't until the weekend after IC4A's that Clayton learned about the impending retirement of longtime Dartmouth coach Carl Wallin. In early July she was introduced as his successor.

Her welcome-to-Hanover gift? The strapping thrower she had seen for the first time two months earlier.

"He's a gem to fall into your hands," she said. "He's someone who is easy to work with, and he hasn't even begun to tap his potential."

That's not surprising, even given that his father, Tom, had been a discus throw at the University of New Hampshire and was still a track official in the state. Yes, the younger Irving had enjoyed success as a high schooler, winning the New England championship in the discus with a throw of 169-10 and finishing third in the shot put. But before coming to Dartmouth he's only had one year when he was focused on track.

It probably shouldn't be much of a surprise, given he was a 6-5, 235 pounds freshman, that Irving played two years of football at Memorial. Nor should it be a surprise that he also played basketball. Sure, he did indoor track, but it was part of a two-sport dance in the winter and it played second fiddle to basketball, particularly after he gave up football and trimmed down to be able to run the court better as a junior.

Although Irving hung up his baseball glove after his freshman year it was AAU basketball taking time away from track the next two springs.

"I guess it wasn't until after my junior year of high school that I decided track was the way I was going to go," he said. "So I did a lot of lifting and throwing that summer."

But even after deciding to specialize in track at the college level he faced temptation from coaches who liked his size and strength.

"A lot of them wanted me to do both, particularly at the Division III level," he said. "A lot of NESCAC schools. I really loved basketball and particularly junior year it went really well. I was feeling really good about my skills. Then a few things developed with AAU and I decided to focus on track."

With Wallin 75 minutes up the road, Dartmouth figured prominently in Irving's thinking about college. That would be in the thinking of Tom Irving, who was at UNH when Wallin was turning Dartmouth into a throwing powerhouse.

"I competed up here a few times but I didn't know much about Dartmouth and was kind of reluctant," David Irving said. "My father sort of pushed me. It was like the last day of my junior year of high school when I got a package from Dartmouth and I was like, 'I guess I'll check this out.' My dad and I decided to take a trip up and met Coach Wallin. I absolutely loved it. I loved his style. I'm very old-school kind of guy and we clicked right off the bat."

After a solid freshman year, Irving blossomed at the perfect time, posting personal bests of 185-7 in the hammer and 167-6 in the discus to place third and fifth respectively at the Outdoor Heps last spring. That came on the heels of a fifth-place finish in the weight throw in late February.

At the Dartmouth Relays this year he threw the weight 58-3, already inches from last year's mark at Indoor Heps. He gives a lot of credit to Clayton for that.

"You always knew Coach Wallin was going to retire at some point, but you knew it wasn't going to be when you were here," he said. "Coach Clayton has come in and done an unbelievable job. I feel blessed to have been coached by both of them."

A person of deep faith and a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Irving considers his talent a gift. He hopes one day to attend seminary.

First though, there's the matter of the history major with an interest in diplomatic relations tapping what Wallin has called his unlimited potential as a thrower.

"It's really going to be hard to hang it up when that time comes, whether it is 2011 or 2020," Irving said. "I just know I want to continue to compete after I graduate and see what I can do."

The answer, his past and current coaches would say, is a lot.

Schedules

Players Mentioned

David Irving

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Schedules

Completed Event: Men's Track & Field versus Ivy League Indoor Championships on February 28, 2026 , , 5th - 55 Pts.

Completed Event: Men's Track & Field at Raleigh Relays on March 26, 2026 ,

Completed Event: Men's Track & Field at UMass Flagship Invite on March 28, 2026 ,

Upcoming Event: Men's Track & Field at Friar Invite on April 10, 2026

Upcoming Event: Men's Track & Field at South Florida Invite on April 10, 2026

Upcoming Event: Men's Track & Field at Sean Collier Invite on April 17, 2026