15 St. Bernard Parish students qualify for national tournament

Elementary School, from left are Chalmette Refining, LLC Technical Manager Jesus “Chuy” Hermosillo, Melinda Hall and Ryan Gregoire, National Team Coordinator Mary Lumetta, Superintendent Doris Voitier, School Board Members Diana Dysart, Joseph Long, Henderson Lewis, Clifford Englande, Chalmette Refining, LLC Public Affairs Officers Elizabeth Frost and Dorothy Hills, and School Board Members William Egan and Sean Warner. Front row: students Dane Keirsey, Bryce Ducote, Aroosa Cheema, Kenny Nguyen and Ahmad Alkurd.

Center picture: includes Middle School Division All-Stars. Coach: Gena Asevado and Ryan Gregoire. Front row: Zeke Keirsey, Riley Loria, Gabrielle Maldonado, Aleena Cheema and Austin Bergeron.

Right picture: includes High School Division All-Stars. Coaches: Kelli Watson and Amy Haase. Front row, Peter Uli, Maleri Curtis, Samantha Arcement, Candice Barwick and Zachary Hall.

No one would have called you crazy if you thought Superman showed up for the Region 3-5A track and field meet and disguised his super “S” outfit by wearing the Chalmette High uniform of elite field performer Andre Dorsey last Thursday at Tad Gormley Stadium in New Orleans.

Coach David Koontz’s Chalmette boys’ team finished third with 52 points behind champion Jesuit with 90 and runner-up Brother Martin with 62. It probably was the best finish by a Chalmette track team in nearly four decades.

One Chalmette athlete who showcased her skills as well as Dorsey was senior Lady Owl Keondra Lafrance who set a school record in the girls’ triple jump.
The senior jumper in just her second season in the sport, leaped a record-smashing 35-3.50 measurement in the hop-step-jump to eclipse the 35-2.75 school mark set by Janeikqua Butler in 2008. Lafrance finished fifth against a powerful group of jumpers.

Lafrance started her meet with a PR-setting 16-8 long jump mark for another fifth place finish against some of the state’s strongest Class 5A girls’ leapers. Fellow district competitor Bernadette Derosier of West Jefferson won both events in metro leading marks and strong state-wide standings.

Numbers don’t lie. And Superman, uh Andre Dorsey, turned in a performance probably never seen before in local prep history as present day athletes are limited to competing in four events. He scored 36 of his team’s 52 points in a performance that may never be surpassed in the future of the school and in metro prep history. It was that fantastic of a meet for Dorsey on the second grandest stage of his career.

Dorsey, aka Superman, recorded super numbers in winning two events – the triple jump with a school record-breaking leap of 48-3.50 and the high jump at 6-6 when exhaustion had taken over his body after performing all four events in not much longer than an hour.

Additionally, the Kennesaw (Georgia) State signee added two second place finishes with personal record performaces – throwing the javelin a 181-9 distance and leaping 22-10.25 in the long jump, just a few inches off the school record (23-1 set in 1974 by Willie Dison).

Furthermore, he became the only athlete in school history to qualify for the state meet in four events as well as in Class 5A competition this season.
He returns to the state meet set for Saturday at LSU’s Bernie Moore Stadium in the high and triple jump as well as the javelin and now competes in his fourth event, the long jump for the first time in his three-year career.

Joining Dorsey at the state meet are sophomore hurdler Albert Brock and senior girls’ thrower Jordan Hartney.

Brock raced to a third-place in the 110-meter high hurdles with a 15.74 seconds clocking against an extremely strong wind. He becomes the first hurdler in school history to compete at the state meet as a 10th grader.

Hartney returns to her final high school meet of her short two-year career in the javelin by throwing 113-2, overcoming a shaky start in the event at the regional.

After that third-place mark in the spear, she turned to the shot put and pulled an upset to earn a second event ticket to LSU with a 32-9 measurement for another third.

Explaining one event of his day’s unforgettable performance, Dorsey talked about the triple jump and breaking his own school record he set earlier this season at 47-4.75, “I tried to focus on my technique and make it as solid as possible. I actually kicked myself on that first jump (48-3.50, school record) as I began to cramp up during the jump. I was getting extremely tired since they forced me to do all four events without a rest in between events.”

Before the triple jump, he earned two second places – first in the javelin and then in the long jump as meet officials forced athletes in certain field events to go back and forth between events even though the javelin was outside the stadium and the long jump inside.

The meet was late getting started and the meet director refused to adjust field events starting times to take that into consideration. They also threatened the multi field event athletes that they would be disqualified from competing in their events if they didn’t check-in even though they were competing in other field events at the same time outside the stadium at the practice track.

After competing in the javelin and long jump at the same time, officials made Dorsey start the triple jump event without any rest. That event was late starting as well and then the high jump competition began even before the triple jump was over. He had finished four events in about an hour and half.

He was doing his Superman act as all of his long jumps were PRs and two of his javelin throws were PRs as well. Then in the triple jump, four of his six leaps were better than his own school record as he did 48-2.50 and 47-8.50 in the prelims.

Only event-ending marks in the javelin and long jump by two strong competitors keep him from winning four events.

After that Dorsey explained his body condition as the triple jump started, “By this time I was cramping really bad. Every time I landed in the pit after a jump, my toes were stuck tight.” No telling what a fresh body could have delivered for him in the hop-step-jump event.

In his final event – the high jump – he won with a 6-6 leap, but he could hardly move his legs as cramps form big knots and made jumping near impossible.

But he wouldn’t give in and then had the bar set at 6-10, a school record-typing measurement. After one try he knew he couldn’t jump any more. “I was so knotted up, I was as stiff as a block of cement.”

He scored 36 points at the regional meet – more than any other athlete in school history had ever done. He was going to the state meet in four events, the only athlete in school history to every accomplish that feat and as research indicates the only athlete in Class 5A history to ever accomplish that feat as well.

After the super senior Owl took off his Chalmete High track uniform top the imprint of Superman’s super “S” seemed to remain on Andre Dorsey’s chest.