For four Bishop Chatard High School seniors, they had something much more important to them that they decided to do on the night of the school's commencement ceremony.

They competed in the boys track and field regional at North Central, did well, and qualified for the state meet.

"It's something we've been wanting to do for four years now," said Chatard senior Chris Dietrick, a Washington Township resident. "I'd much rather do that than go to graduation."

Dietrick and classmates Seth Ball, Todd Leone and Nick Metzger never wavered in their unanimous decision to skip the May 25 graduation ceremonies in favor of competing in the regional.

All four said they wouldn't change a thing.

Ball, Dietrick, Leone and junior Andrew Poore won the 3,200-meter relay in a regional record time of 7 minutes, 45.7 seconds, shattering the old mark of 7:53.78 and qualifying for today's state finals at Indiana University.

The relay team will be the top seed for the state meet, which begins at 3 p.m.

All four members of the relay team will compete in multiple events today. Dietrick and Leone took first and second, respectively, in the regional 800-meter run, finishing one-tenth of a second apart, to advance.

Ball finished first in the 1,600-meter run. Poore captured the final qualifying spot in the 3,200-meter run with his third-place finish.

Metzger was the only Chatard senior to miss qualifying for the state meet. He finished fifth in the pole vault but has no regrets about his decision.

"I think it was definitely worth doing it," said Metzger, who lives in Broad Ripple. "Even though I didn't do my best, I felt like I did something I wanted to do. I'm glad I made that decision. . . . I'm glad I could represent my school and my team."

Leone, who lives in Lawrence Township, said his mother, Regina, lamented missing the ceremony more than he.

"It would have been nice to go to my high school graduation," he said. "You only have one high school graduation. . . . We worked hard in school, but we worked hard to earn a state championship. Skipping our graduation to (compete in) a regional to get to a state championship was the way we were going to have to do that.

"It really wasn't a tough decision, though I think my mom was more upset about missing graduation than I was . . . but (my parents) have always supported me. They're just happy to see me succeeding in track, too."

Ball, who lives in Washington Township, said once the seniors realized the scheduling conflict could take place, they all discussed their decision with their parents well in advance of the regional meet.

"I think they all really understood that running is No. 1 in our lives right now," Ball said. "I wouldn't have missed regionals for the world. The four of us had a great night. It was a pretty easy decision."

Chatard coach Dan Kinghorn wasn't surprised by his team's choice.

"It's been the best senior class I've ever had," he said. "While it was a big decision, they never thought twice about it. They were going to the track meet no matter what."

The school arranged for a police escort to take the four seniors back to the commencement in the event the meet ended in time, although two weather delays prevented that from happening.

Still, all four will still get an opportunity to go through graduation ceremonies. A special service will be held during Sunday's 11 a.m. Mass at St. Pius X Catholic Church where all four will receive their diplomas.

They'll each have one more opportunity to graduate with another class, since all four plan to enroll in college this fall.

Ball, Leone and Metzger will attend Indiana University. Ball will run cross country and track, and Leone and Metzger are considering being walk-ons in track. Dietrick will run at DePauw.