Vormohr wins shot put title

Editor’s note: With a void in sports, The Commercial Review will occasionally run past stories from key events in the area’s athletic history. This story, from June 4, 1984, recalls John Vormohr hurling his way through the state finals to become the first male state champion in school history.

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INDIANAPOLIS — Since Jay County High School opened in 1975, thousands of athletes have worn the school colors in competition. Many have won conference honors. Some have triumphed in regional or sectional competition.

But of all those athletes, only two have ever won a state championship. And they both won it by hurling a heavy metal ball through the air.

Carla Miller did it first, winning the shot put title in the 1982 state track and field championships. And on Saturday, John Vormohr joined her in the state roll of honor, downing a field of top shot-putters to claim a state championship of his own.

The muscular senior sent the shot 59 feet, 2 inches, more than three feet farther than anyone else in the Indiana-Purdue track and field stadium.

Vormohr’s triumph, coupled with outstanding efforts by distance runner Doug Peterson, hoisted Jay County to a fifth place finish in the state meet with 18 points. It was the best finish ever for a Jay County track and field squad in the state meet.

Jay County’s girls, meanwhile, picked up five points, good for a 29th place tie with Muncie Central in the team standings. Those points came from Tonya Watkins, who ran heroically even after her dreams of a state championship were dashed by an ankle injury.

It was a day for celebration and for tears, a day when some athletes found the sunshine streaked with glory and others found the day clouded by disappointment.

For Vormohr, Saturday’s state championship was hardly unexpected. Vormohr has been the state’s best shot-putter throughout the season, and he had scored easy victories in both the sectional and the regional.

Still, his dominance over the rest of the field was most impressive. Vormohr unleashed his winning throw on the first put of the competition.

He followed it up with three throws of more than 58 feet, a throw of more than 57 feet, and one of 56 feet, 8.25 inches. That throw — by far Vormohr’s shortest of the day — was still a foot farther than the best throw of second place finisher Neil Eubank of Merrillville.

Despite the easy win, Vormohr wasn’t completely satisfied with his performance, saying he was “a little disappointed” that he didn’t throw 60 feet in the state finals.

“I’ve hit it in practice (including two throws at that distance in warm-ups Saturday),” Vormohr said. “I’ve got only one more meet. Hopefully I’ll do it then. In the meet I just couldn’t get it together.”

Vormohr’s last high school meet will be the Midwest Meet of Champions, an interstate invitational track and field meet for high school seniors that will be held later this month in Fort Wayne.

While Vormohr was outclassing his competitors, Peterson was finding that his best efforts weren’t good enough Saturday.

Peterson, a senior, managed to place third in the 1,600-meter run in the state finals, recording a 4:18.19 to finish just nine-one hundredths of a second out of second place. His coach, Roy Sneed, said Peterson probably could have run better in the 1,600, but he “just let them (the field) get away.”

In his second event, the 800-meter run, Peterson wasn’t about to let anybody get away. Abandoning his characteristic come-from-behind style of of respect for the speedy runners in the race, Peterson seized the lead after the first lap of the two-lap race, and sprinted out to a wide margin.

As the crowd watched, Peterson hung onto his lead as he went into the far turn. But he soon began to feel the effects of his efforts, and Demetrice Graves, the Indianapolis North Central star who had recorded the fastest qualifying time in Friday night’s heats, caught Peterson at the top of the stretch.

Peterson ran on, trying to stay with the leader, but Graves soon left him behind, and as Peterson lurched to the finish line, he was passed by three other runners. At the end, Peterson collapsed to the track in exhaustion and frustration, a fifth place finisher in 1:56.29.

That drama was echoed, and perhaps surpassed, in the performance of Watkins, who was a state finalist in three different events.

Watkins didn’t score any points in the 100-meter hurdles, where she finished seventh in a time of 14.98 seconds. But as she moved to the high jump, her specialty in four years at Jay County, she seemed ready for a good performance.

Then adversity struck. After clearing five feet, six inches to make the high jump finals, Watkins turned her ankle as she attempted to clear 5-8. The injury forced her to miss at that height, leaving her in sixth place int he event. And, worse, it seemed to destroy any chance she had at doing well in her final event of the day, the 300-meter hurdles.

But Watkins wouldn’t give up. As she said later: “It hurt so bad, but I was determined to come home with some hardware. I wasn’t going to come 80 miles for nothing.”

Trainers applied ice to the ankle, and with the application of a supporting layer of tape, Watkins decided to take a shot at hurdles.

It was more than a shot. It was the race of her life. Running against the state’s best hurdlers, Watkins came home fourth in 44.96 seconds, nearly a second faster than she had ever run before.

Girls coach Dennis Dwiggins said that he thought Watkins could have finished first or second in the high jump if it hadn’t been for the injury, but he was pleased with her performance.

Dwiggins also had praise for Katie Keller, who finished 12th in her fourth straight appearance in the 1,600-meter run at the state championships.

Keller, who finished second in her division in the 1,600, finished 14th, 12th and ninth in her previous state meet races.

Jay County’s other competitor, junior shot-putter Monica Dick, finished out of the top rank in her event. Dick’s best throw of the day, a toss of 36 feet, 1.75 inches, was well of the winning heave by defending champion Deborah Smith of Lake Station Edison. Smith later own the meet’s mental attitude award.

At the end of the day, boys’ coach Sneed expressed pleasure with the fifth place finish. And despite the fact that Peterson and Vormohr — who scored the points that made that high finish possible — won’t be back next year, Sneed says he’s not dreading the thought of next year.”

We’ll have some holes to fill as we have some good kids coming in,” he said “I don’t think anybody’s going to be crying (for us).”



Coaches, family fueled success

John Vormohr fell in love with track and field at an early age.

His father, Joseph, grew up in the Cincinnati area and was a field athlete during high school.

He passed the sport down to his kids. Frank was first. Then David.

John, the youngest of nine children, dabbled in the event a bit in junior high, but did not get into the sport heavily until he was in high school.

His dedication to getting stronger, his passion for the sport and discipline to put in the required work led to him becoming the first male Jay County High School athlete to win a state championship, claiming the top spot in the shot put in 1984.

“I just really enjoyed it,” he said on a phone call Monday night. “It was fun and that’s when I started lifting weights. My body changed. I just fell in love with the shot put and track and field.”

As a junior, Vormohr said he’d pick up then-JCHS boys basketball coach Jerry Bomholt at 5:15 a.m. each morning to work out.

They bought into the Bigger Faster Stronger program, and together spent two years following it.

“Could I have done it without coach Bomholt? Yes, but he was such a disciplinarian,” he said. “We got to be good friends. We worked out hard.

“He would get on my butt and I would get on his. I think it was good for me, the discipline that he had working out, it rubbed off and definitely got me stronger.”

Roy Sneed, the boys track coach, throwing coach Don Alexander and Bomholt are credited with influencing Vormohr’s dedication to the sport.

His brothers played a big part in it as well. So too did witnessing the success of Carla Miller — she was the first JCHS state champion, taking the shot put title in 1982.

“When you’re around people like that, you know you can do it,” he said. “It takes self discipline.”

While watching the success of Tony Evans, Miller and his brothers was motivating enough, something his father always told him was the ultimate drive he needed: “Don’t be the best thrower in Jay County, be the best thrower in the state of Indiana.”

Vormohr was the state’s best thrower for the entirety of his senior season.

When it came time for the postseason, he backed up the hype with sectional and regional championships.

At regional, which Vormohr said was his only real challenge, he won with a toss of 59 feet, 4.25 inches.

It was a victory by more than two feet.

The following week at state, each of Vormohr’s warm-up throws surpassed 60 feet, which was always his goal.

During competition, though, he wasn’t able to match his warm-up tosses.

However, his first hurl, 59 feet, 2 inches, stood as the championship-clinching put. Even his shortest throw of the day — 56 feet, 8.25 inches — was a foot further than runner-up Neil Eubank of Merrillville.

“It’s excitement,” he said, noting he still has his state championship ring. “It’s a dream. It’s definitely something … that’s what you work out for. That’s what you train for. That’s what you have the passion to do is win the state.

“When I won the state it was a relief.”

Vormohr was also an all-state football player, and later went on to both throw and participate on the gridiron for the University of Indianapolis Greyhounds.

He started as an offensive tackle each of his first three years in football.

Toward the end of his junior year he had knee surgery, and decided to concentrate more on track because it was the sport for which he was awarded a scholarship.

He had just as much success throwing in college as he did in high school, earning All-America honors as a junior and senior.

In some capacity, Vormohr, who lives in Portland, has been in sales since his athletic career ended.

He is currently an insurance agent for Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance. His two children both live in Texas, and his daughter will be playing soccer for Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the fall.

Vormohr’s athletic successes can be traced back to the support system he had growing up.

“We were fortunate back then to have good coaches in all the sports,” he said. “I had a lot of support and I think that’s the key.”