Feb. 7, 2009
Stats
LEXINGTON, Ky. -
Illinois State track and field freshman Steve Regan's unbeaten record was broken, however it was not in vein as Regan placed fourth with a personal-best and NCAA provisional qualifying time of 1:50.21 in the 800-meter run at the Rod McCravy Memorial Invitational held inside the Nutter Field House in Lexington, Ky., Saturday.
"Steve continues to amaze as the season goes on," said head coach Elvis Forde. "His is just having a fabulous season which can be accredited to his determination to succeed. He has a bright future and as a testament to that he got a provisional mark today and he will hopefully get a NCAA automatic qualifier by the end of the season."
The Monticello, Ill., native's fourth-place finish in the 800 is the first time he has not won an event this season. He was undefeated in the 800-meter dash through the first three meets (Redbird Open, Terre Haute Double Dual and Redbird Invitational) and then earned a first-place finish in the mile last weekend at the Wisconsin Elite Invitational.
Junior Nick Ragusa had a record breaking performance in the men's pole vault clearing a personal-best height of 16 feet, .75 inches, which ranks as No. 2 all-time in the Illinois State record book. His mark topped the 20-year-old record set by Sean Funk (1989) and Brian Schweitzer (1987) by three-quarters-of-an-inch. Ragusa, a native of Naperville, Ill., came away with a second-place finish.
"Nick has been having a good season all year," said Forde. "I think that he is going to be at the top in the conference (Missouri Valley Conference) and trying to make a provision mark. He has worked hard and I believe that he has a chance to break or even tie the school record."
Junior Sam Watts set a personal-best mark in the long jump leaping 23-9 for a second-place finish.
On the track, the trio of senior Mike Richardson (8:18.26); junior Scott Krapf (8:19.01); and sophomore Matt Mroczynski (8:20.25) all set personal-best marks in the 3,000-meter run and finished ninth through 11th, respectively.
On the women's side, sophomore Kirsten Lang set a personal-best time of 9:58.13 in the 3,000 for a fourth-place finish. In the short sprints, sophomore Meaka Brents set personal-best marks in the 60- and 200-meter dashes. In the 60 Brents clocked a blistering time of 7.71 seconds to finish 10th and she then finished 20th in the 200 with a time of 25.30.
"Kirsten comes to work every day," said Forde. "She is dedicated to the school and the event. She works to get better each and every week.
"We have to continue to compete each and every weekend. We still need to work on some things and look to get some people healthy, but we still have a couple of weeks to go until conference (State Farm MVC Indoor Championships, Feb. 28-March 1)."
Freshman Alia McAfee turned in a personal-best time of 56.66 seconds in the 400-meter dash to finish in 12th place.
The Redbirds will be back in action next weekend as they travel to Ames, Iowa to compete at the Iowa State Classic inside the Lied Recreation Center Feb. 13-14.
