Regans make their mark in pole vault

Friday, April 23, 2004
By BRUCE BURATTI
The Express-Times


PHILADELPHIA -- The Regan sisters of Easton made the pole vault their exclusive domain Thursday at the 110th running of the Penn Relays. Lindsay Regan, a sophomore at Easton Area High School, captured the high school girls division of the event and her winning height of 12-7 also
established a meet record.
Regan had to go through Shawnee's Danielle O'Reilly, the reigning New Jersey state champion and the U.S. scholastic indoor record holder (13-5 ) in order to get her gold watch, which is traditionally presented to the high school winners at Penn. O'Reilly had to settle for second at a height of 12-3.
Passing until 10-11, Regan cleared that height as well as 11-6, 11-11, 12-3 and

12-7 all on her first attempts. O'Reilly fell behind on misses after failing to clear 12-3 on her first try. After clearing 12-7 to win the event Regan had the officials set the bar at 12-10, which would have topped her previous personal best by a half-inch. She got off three good attempts but brushed the bar off the standards each time. "Today, everything just felt good for me," Regan said. "My approach felt solid, the only thing that was off was my mechanics after my hands left the pole. I think I can get 13 (feet), if I improve on that. Hopefully, it's not that far away." Regan's winning height improved her Express-Times region outdoor record of 12-6 set last week while her indoor best of 12-9 , established at this past winter's Pennsylvania Coaches Championships, represents the overall region record. Regan's victory came just two hours after Katie Regan,the oldest of the three Regan sisters and a sophomore at Cornell, finished tied for fifth in the college division of the women's pole vault, matching her personal best of 11-9 . That also qualified her for the ECAC Championships next month. Not bad for someone who's been pole vaulting for just nine months. Courtney, the middle of the three Regans, passed at the opening height of 10-6 in the high school division, cleared 10-11 on her second attempt but went out at 11-3 to also finish fifth. Although she's gotten off to a relatively slow start outdoors, she is the defending PIAA Class AAA champion and will have to be reckoned with at some point of the season. "I never developed any bad habits," said Katie Regan, who started her Cornell career as a middle distance runner with no vaulting background. Plus, I've had good coaching. That's a huge factor." Katie Regan cleared the opening height of 10-9, 11-4 and 11-9 all on her first attempts. She just missed 12-3 on both her second and third tries, which would have provisionally qualified her for the NCAA Eastern Regionals next month.