Jesuit's exhausted Vocke one of five track champions

By Ron Brocato
Clarion Herald

No wonder Michael Vocke was exhausted.

The Jesuit freshman distance runner, a favorite to win the 800-meter run at the LHSAA’s Class 5A State Track and Field Championship Meet, failed to appear at the starting line of that race after he had set a personal-best time in winning the longer 1,600-meter event an hour earlier.

Vocke, who qualified for the 1,600 with the seventh-best time of 4:45.10 in a field of nine runners, put on a burst of speed in the final lap to win the event in the incredible time of 4:17.27.

By accomplishing this feat, his mind and body was completely spent. Nearly collapsing when he crossed the finish line, Vocke needed help to walk to the trainers’ tent to be treated for exhaustion. After several minutes with an ice pack applied to the back of his neck, he and his first-place medal left the track for the day.

Vocke, whose 1:57.50 in the regional meet was the fastest in the field of 800-meter competitors, was the favorite in that event. The eventual winner – Dyllon Nimmers from team champion Ruston – covered the two laps in 1:57.15, bettering his qualifying time by more than a second. St. Augustine’s Zander Dunbar finished a close second in the time of 1:57.62.

But the Jesuit youngster left with the fourth-fastest 1,600-meter time ever recorded by a New Orleans high school athlete, and the fastest since Brother Martin’s Ken Shiffman ran a 4:17.35 in 2008. 

The city and state record is owned by the late Keith Iovine of Archbishop Rummel, who ran a 4:12.0 in 1982. And the 10 points Vocke would have received for winning the 800 would not have bettered Jesuit's fifth-place finish in team scoring.

While local Catholic school teams failed to win a team championship in any classification, Vocke was one of five individual winners representing Archdiocese of New Orleans schools.

But the biggest winner of the three-day meet was another distance standout, Peyton Chaisson of Pope John Paul II, who took home gold medals in the 800- and 1,600-meter runs and finished second in the 3,200-meter event. His 28 individual points propelled the Jaguars’ boys’ team to a fourth-place finish among a field of 38 Class 2A schools.

Chaisson bettered his three qualifying times in the championship meet: the 800 (from 2:02.95 to 1:58.55), the 1,600 (from 4:39.99 to 4:34.89) and the 3,200 (from 10:38.85 to 10:15.79, an amazing 32-second improvement in his runner-up performance). 

Also winning gold medals were Jesuit’s Jack DesRoches in the boys’ Class 5A 3,200-meter run, which he completed in 9:47.89; De La Salle’s Ja’Marian Peterson in the boys’ Class 3A shot-put with a top throw of 49-9 3/4, and Academy of the Sacred Heart’s Mykhala Coleman in the girls’ Class 3A shot put with a 40-3 1/2 . All three bettered their qualifying performances.

Winning silver medals for second place were Semare Scott of St. Charles Catholic in the boys’ Class 2A 400-meter dash (50.90) and Dunbar of St. Augustine in the boys’ 5A two-lap event.

Bronze medals for third place went to Jesuit’s Aiden Devine in the 5A boys’ pole vault (15-11 1/4); Arianna White of Mount Carmel in the 5A girls’ javelin throw (129-11); Renee’ Anderson of De La Salle in the girls’ Class 3A shot-put (37-11 1/2); Joe Estopinal of Pope John Paul II in the boys’ 2A javelin (154); Mallory Norton of Pope John Paul II in the 2A girls javelin (130-8); and the Sacred Heart 3,200-meter relay team of  Emily Leblanc, Olivia McGoey, Leah Varisco and Olivia Boyd.

Team champions were: 

Class 5A – Ruston, boys; St. Joseph’s Academy, girls.

Class 4A – Westgate, boys; Vandebilt Catholic, girls.

Class 3A – Lake Charles College Prep, boys; Episcopal-Baton Rouge, girls.

Class 2A – Episcopal, boys and girls.

Class 1A – Ouachita Christian, boy and girls.

Class B – Clark, boys; Episcopal School of Acadiana, girls.

Class C – Hackberry, boys; Reeves, girls.

[email protected]