Daily Journal Athlete of the Week: Sacred Heart Prep’s Maxime Morelle

With the historic heave, Morelle also threw down the gauntlet as a contender for the state championships later this season. Only one varsity shot putter in California has recorded a better throw this season, Redondo Union senior Bo Ausmus at 63-7 3/4. Ausmus currently ranks fifth in the nation, with Morelle on his heels in sixth place nationally.

“This is definitely just the start, especially this early in the season,” Morelle said. “I’m definitely aiming toward the 70-foot mark.”

SHP had a busy Saturday, with head coach Marisa Beck’s team competing concurrently at two different meets. While Morelle was making history at Saint Francis, Beck was coaching at the Dublin Distance Fiesta but getting text updates from Mountain View.

Morelle entered the day with a personal record of 58-10 1/2, from a throw two weeks earlier at the Rustbuster Invitational in Cupertino. When Beck received a text Morelle hit a new PR, she immediately impresses despite initially misreading it. Boy, was she surprised when she reread the good news.

“He PR’d by 5 inches?” Beck said. “No! He PR’d by 5 feet!”

As it turns out, Morelle needed all five of those feet just to win the meet Saint Francis Invitational championship.

A pristine day for throwing with sweltering heat and no wind, Morelle wasn’t the only person to PR. Saint Francis senior Case Jacobson recorded two throws over 60 feet, and was leading heading into the final round of competition. When Morelle stepped into the pit for his final throw, Jacobson still had one turn to go.

Morelle uncorked the best throw since 2008 — when Los Gatos’ Colin Quirke, a former rival of current SHP throws coach Charles Olaires, tabbed a 63-6 at the CIF state championship trials — and knew while he was still in his followthrough he hit it.

“You kind of get a sense or feeling when it’s leaving your hand ... and before it even lands, you get that little hint where that was really good; that was a good throw,” Morelle said.

It was a good throw on a day of good throws, as he outdueled not only Jacobson, but San Mateo senior Yianni Fitzgerald, who just missed with 60-foot threshold with a third-place throw of 59-4 1/2 for a PR. Then Jacobson bettered his initial plus-60 distance with a throw that, until the official measurement was announced, looked like it might have bettered Morelle’s.

“Everyone knew it was close,” Olaires said. “It got pretty quiet. ... As soon as they brought the tape measure out, everyone was really quiet. ... It was up in the air to see how close it was.”

Jacobson settled for a second place at 62-2, 1 foot shy of Morelle’s best, and good for 15th all-time in CCS history.

“I think just the competition between those three pushing each other and really making that competition level rise was really intense,” Olaires said. “And seeing Maxime lock in for that last throw was really electric. The whole shot put area was crazy.”

A transfer from Los Altos after his sophomore year, Morelle had to sit out the first six weeks of the 2025 track season. He made his SHP debut April 5, 2025, at the Stanford Invitational. He went on to win just two meets, West Bay Athletic League 2B and 3B, in the regular season. He took second place at the WBAL Finals, and threw for a season-best 57-11 in the CCS championship trials. In the CCS finals, he settled for seventh place.

His junior year was highlighted by SHP adding Olaires to the coaching staff. Olaires had coached Morelle at Los Altos and, when Morelle transferred to the Atherton private school, Beck insisted on adding a full-time throws coach. Olaires fit the bill, and helped Morelle to surpass the 60-foot mark in practice on a consistent basis.

This year, Morelle has refined his mechanics from a glide to a spin, an approach he has implemented in meets over a month prior to his start date in 2025.

“I think he’s more confident,” Beck said. “I think that with transferring schools it was a challenge with the season because he couldn’t start competing until April, and everyone else had been competing four or more weeks, and he was just jumping into it.”

Ranking eighth all-time in CCS, Morelle is less than 3 feet off the section record of 65-10, set by Fremont-Sunnyvale’s Steve Wilhelm in 1967.

“This is definitely just a stepping stone,” Morelle said. “I’m going to keep driving and keep pushing for the 70 footer.”

A realistic goal? Absolutely, Olaires said.

“With how he’s been locking in this early of the season, I don’t see that being too far out of reach,” Olaires said. “I can see him getting that this year.”