Tim Regan Wins 300 Meter

By: Dan Crowley
Published: 02/26/10

Sandwich High School senior Tim Regan won the 300 meter at the MIAA Division 3 State Track & Field Meet Sunday at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston, posting a time of 36.59 seconds. The Blue Knights finished in a three-way tie for eighth place. Sandwich finished with 16 points as did Bishop Stang and Dighton-Rehoboth high schools.

Regan holds the school record in the 300 with a time of 35.70, set earlier this year.

“Tim was ranked first by a lot,” Coach Steve Infascelli said. “His instructions were to run as easy as he could to advance, which he did. The gun went off, and he immediately made up the stagger and was the first to the breakpoint. He then took a look around and eased up a lot once he realized he was in control and would advance.

In the final he was to run as hard as he could, so as to get a fast seed time for the all-state meet next week. Unfortunately Tim had been ill the past week. Because of this he was a bit worn down. He certainly lost some weight last week, which was mostly muscle, so his time in the final was disappointing, more so for him, not for me. But a win is a win. It’s his first major win, and he should be proud of himself.” The SHS 4x400 team of Sam Ellis, Dana Murphy, Dave Regan, and Tim Regan finished fourth in a time of 3:35.45, just a second off the SHS record.

“Our 4x400 relay was the most exciting race of the evening,” Coach Infascelli pointed out. “Sam Ellis ran hard out of the blocks and immediately took the lead after the first corner. He split a season-best 52 in the first 400m leg. He handed off to Dana Murphy who probably had one of the harder legs to run. It’s tough to get the baton in the first place. There is a certain amount of courage and maturity needed when you’re in that kind of position. He carried himself well. Two runners had passed him in the middle stage of the race but not without a fight, which certainly fired up our team. He handed off to Dave Regan, who late in the leg, started to gain ground on second and third place. I think he knew that if he could close the gap just a bit for his brother Tim that we’d have a great shot at placing second. Dave handed off to Tim in a season-best time of 54 seconds, and Tim was off and running. I was pleasantly surprised at how well Tim had recovered from his earlier two races; that’s a lot of work he did. Coming off the turn and into the backstretch he swung wide and tried to pass the two runners; however, they successfully held him off and because of this Tim had to run extra distance in the outside lane three around the final turn. He hung on well for fourth place, splitting a 51 for his leg.”

Dave Allen (9:57.57) ran fifth in the two-mile, with Jason Lefavor (10:30.40) taking 16th place.

“Dave Allen’s two-mile was a very scary race,” Infascelli said. “Dave was ranked fifth coming in, with a personal best of 9:55: five seconds off Ted Vrountas’s school record. Dave likes to run a very even-paced race, and his race went out very, very fast. He was off the back of the pack after just a half mile. I was a bit nervous; however, Dave is a tough-as-nails-type of runner. After one mile (4:52) some of the other runners started to fade and come back to him. He kept running strong and ran the last half mile very aggressively to pick off a few runners to place fifth overall, advancing to all-state. I’m excited to see how he’ll run next week. Jason Lefavor had a bit of a bad day in the two-mile. Earlier in the season he had posted a national qualifier at 5,000 meters. He’s got to get over this bad race, so he can do well at the national championships.”

Ellis finished in eighth place in the 55-meter high hurdles in a time of 8.33 seconds, and Stephen MacDonald took 22nd in the one-mile with a time of 4:51.60.

“Steve just had an overall bad day,” the coach noted. “It’s unfortunate that his bad day came at a state meet competition. His finish was far from his best time.”

Junior Mikhaela Tropp ran seventh in the 300 meter for the Lady Knights, posting a time of 43.31 seconds.

“Mikhaela also advanced to the final by running seventh in the trials,” Infascelli explained. “She also placed seventh overall, just missing qualifying for the all-state meet. I think we could have worked on her start during vacation a bit more and that might have been the deciding factor between being an all-state qualifier and not. She’s a great competitor, and we’ll take this as a learning experience. She’ll certainly be a shining star for us come spring, just as she was all last year.”

Leave a Reply

In order to comment you need to be logged in.