By Bruce Baratti
The Express-Times
Sunday April 2nd, 2005

As long as I've covered track and field in The Express-Times region, and that covers a period of 34 years, some events go through periods of strength while others fall off for a few years before rebounding with a vengeance.

As we enter the 2005 season, the pole vault has become the region's marquee event. Easton junior Easton Lindsay Regan, who was ranked No. 4 in the nation last season off her height of 13-2 in the Lehigh Valley Conference Championships, won a state title as a sophomore. Her LVC performance also ranks No. 13 all-time in U.S. history.

But region pole vaulting doesn't just begin and end with Regan. There is a talented underclass of vaulters beneath her. Regan is part of Mike Lawryk's Vertical Assault Club, which now has a facility in Bath. Actually, most of the top vaulters in the region are from the Vertical Assault stable.

On the girls side, underneath Regan there is Kristen Hafford of Warren Hills, the Warren County record-holder (12-0), who started at the HIP Club but has recently been working with Lawryk. Beki Finn, a sophomore from Liberty, has gone 10-6 already outdoors, as has Julia Green, a freshman and former Parkette gymnast from Emmaus. Both are also working with Lawryk at Vertical Assault.

Hunterdon Central's Tara Oberg, who cleared 11 feet this past indoor season has been also working out with the Vertical Assault Club.

Even the boys are scaling new heights. Only five have cleared 15 feet in region history and two of them came last spring with Scott Ragosta of Parkland, another Lawryk disciple, doing in the District 11 meet and Mike Tucholski of Hunterdon Central, a member of Tindall's club, making that height at the Central Jersey Group 4 sectional championships.

Liberty junior Andrew Lee, a football player, has also emerged out of Vertical Assault. He cleared 14 feet indoors and also went 14-0 in the Hurricanes' first outdoor meet last weekend. That's just one inch off the Northampton County mark of 14-1 set in the 1968 District 11 meet by Northampton's Joe Steffie.