Sophomore Myles Pringle has earned quite the reputation since stepping onto Ashland University’s campus in the 2015 fall semester.

As a freshman, Pringle earned All-America honors and finished third nationally in the outdoor 400-meter dash in 46.04 seconds, which set a new program record. He also earned United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Region honors both indoors and outdoors, and won a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title outdoors in the 400.

Pringle made history again this season at the Kent State Golden Flash Gala on Dec. 10, setting a program record in the high jump (7 feet, 1 ½ inches).

Pringle cleared his six-step PR for the high jump (6-10) during the week of practice leading up to Kent, which led to his coach telling him that he was going to jump 7 feet that weekend.

“Right before I went to jump 7 feet, my coach said, ‘Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to go out there and jump 7 feet. We are both going to come out in the middle and do a chest bump, and we are going to celebrate, and then you are going to jump 7-1,’” Pringle said.

Pringle missed his first attempt at 7 feet, but got it on his second attempt. 

“I was just ecstatic,” Pringle said. “My all-time goal was getting 7 feet. It just made me so happy. So when I went out and jumped 7-1, I was just speechless.”

Later that day on an oversized track, he ran the fourth-fastest indoor 400 time (46.11 seconds) in Division II history.

Howard Burnett of NYIT ran a 46.00 on an oversized track and also on a separate occasion a 46.05 on a regular track, while Josh Scott of Saint Augustine’s also ran a 46.05 on a regular track.

“I’m so close to getting that No. 1 spot [in the 400]. And in my head I’m thinking, ‘That’s a really big deal. That’s huge. I’m on the road to being No. 1 in the nation in the 400 and hopefully in the high jump.’ That really just hit me home,” Pringle recalled thinking during his record-breaking day.

Despite making a significant impact in sprints and jumps on the collegiate level, he has not always done them.

Pringle first got involved with running when he joined a running club prior to middle school. He was a distance runner and typically competed in the 800 and the mile.

He continued distance running until his junior year of high school when he transitioned into sprints. 

Before his running career ever began, though, he figure skated and played soccer. 

His mother figure skated into her 30s, and he decided at age six that he wanted to give it a shot, too. He found that he enjoyed it and still skates to this day.

Soccer has also played a big role in his life, as he began playing at age eight and continued playing for eight years after that.

These two sports have given Pringle several benefits in his track career.

“Soccer is good for endurance and getting you ready for the long sprints and stuff like that,” Pringle said. “Figure skating is good for balance and keeping your foot steady and everything like that, which works with high jump and hurdles.”

Pringle grew up in Colerain Township, which is a suburb of Cincinnati in Hamilton County, and he attended Northwest High School for his freshman and sophomore years.

He then enrolled at Butler Tech — a vocational school that offers programs such as engineering and firefighting — during his junior and senior years, where he went to the School of Arts for Dance.

While attending Butler Tech, he still competed in cross country, track and soccer at Northwest.  

It was during his junior year that he first realized he had a legitimate shot at competing at the next level for track.

Pringle’s step dad, who works at Miami University in Oxford, talked to the Miami track coach about Pringle competing in a meet that was taking place at the university. It was decided that Pringle could compete in the meet, so he ran the 400 and got first in his heat, despite being the only high school athlete in the race. 

After that race, he knew he had special abilities in track.

“I could actually see myself doing more, and going to college and doing track,” Pringle recalled thinking after racing at Miami.

Due to complications stemming from the meet, he had to sit out the remainder of his junior track season.

”I was always told that everything happens for a reason,” Pringle said. “I thought this is happening for a reason. I am going to get something better.”

He made it to state in four events during his senior track campaign, finishing first in the 4×100 relay, second in the 400 and third in the high jump.Pringle earned other honors while in high school, including first-team all-league in cross country and track, as well as second-team all-league in soccer. He earned 11 varsity letters between the three sports.

As his senior track season played out, colleges such as Kent State, Akron, Cincinnati and Ohio State were expressing interest in him joining their track and field programs.

Three weeks after the state competition had ended, Pringle still had not decided what college he wanted to attend.

Alan Dunson — who was a track coach at Ashland University at the time — kept messaging Pringle to try and get him to visit AU. Pringle finally decided to visit, but he initially was not sure how he felt about the university.

But after walking around and talking with the coaches, he saw a lot of things he liked about AU. 

“I really wanted the coach-athlete relationship,” Pringle said. “I didn’t want my coach to be like, ‘You need to do that, that and that,’ and just leave it at that. And not say stuff like, ‘Good job.’” 

“So at the time that’s really what I saw and what I really liked [about AU],” he said. “And Ashland as a whole just felt like home to me.”

Pringle committed to AU after one last visit to Saginaw Valley State

During his free time at Ashland, he enjoys sleeping, watching Netflix, talking to his mom, reading books, watching TV and hanging out with friends. 

He is majoring in sport communication and minoring in sports management. 

Obtaining an internship at ESPN or a news station is the next step for him in his academic path.

After that, he would like to manage his own sports team or become a track analyst.

His ultimate goal, however, is to become a professional track athlete and go to the Olympic Trials for the 2020 Olympics.

If Pringle continues progressing at the rate that he has so far in in his track career, his goal may very well come to fruition.