Four Years Running: Perennial Champ Gaffney Wrapping Prep Career This Weekend

Posted

It will be the end of an era at the State 2B Track and Field Championships this weekend in Cheney.

The red turf at Eastern Washington University will host Adna speedster Regyn Gaffney one last time. The Pirate sprinter has made the main lanes in front of the Roos Field grandstands her stage, winning a total of eight state championships to date.

This year, she can up the total and wrap up her prep athletic career on a high note before heading off to Washington State University. Gaffney signed a National Letter of Intent to run for the Cougars earlier this spring.

It’s a career that may have been hinted at during recess at Adna Elementary School, when she would race — and beat — all the boys. Gaffney also competed in Hershey’s Track and Field games for kids, and first tasted defeat at the state tournament.

“I didn’t win. I think I lost to some girls up in Seattle,” she said. “I think I cried afterwards.”

Since then? There hardly been a reason for tears, as far as running’s concerned.

The Pirate sprinter put in a historic state track meet as a junior last year. Gaffney broke the State 2B record for the 100-meter dash with a 12.10 time. She edged the next sprinter by .39 seconds.

She then won the 200, missing out on the 2B record by a hundredth of a second, and won the 400 while breaking another state record with a time of 56.40. She won her fourth event of the meet by posting a long jump of 17 feet, 9 inches — winning a state title by over 14 inches.

“It kind of came as a complete shock to me,” Gaffney said of her 2014 visit to Cheney. “I’m very excited and I’m hoping for a good outing. I want to do the same or better than last year.”

This season, Gaffney is coming off recovery from torn ligaments in her ankle. She spent five weeks in a cast and had to wait several weeks after that before she could begin running during basketball season.

“They told me not to do anything that would hurt for a few weeks,” Gaffney said. “But I was in the gym every day, still working out.”

Gaffney bounced back and ended up posting an 11.99 time in the 100-meter dash at Ridgefield’s Spudder Classic meet on May 8 before going on to win four league championships and three district titles this postseason.



The one casualty because of the ankle injury was the long jump. Due to the impact a jumper makes in the pit, Gaffney had to refrain from one of her favorite events.

“It’s just a lot of fun. You can talk to people and just relax more,” Gaffney said. “But after doing the long jump my leg started cramping up in the sprinting events since I had spent so much time not walking on it. Since stopping the long jump, I’ve felt great.”

Heading into state this weekend, Gaffney has the fastest time in 100, the 200 (25.49) and 400 (58.85) dash. It will be her last high school hurrah.

It started back in her freshman year, when Gaffney won her first state championship in the 100 meters in 12.60 seconds.

“I was a very paranoid runner back then,” she said. “I knew my running form was 

terrible but I knew I was sort of fast. Athletic.net (a website that compiles data from each prep track meet in the state) was my best friend as soon as I found out about it.” 

Her sophomore year, Gaffney won the 100, 200 and 400 and was part of a third-place 4x400 team that, she added, has been the highlight of her state track experiences so far.

Along with track, Gaffney has been an All-Area player for the Pirates in girls soccer, leading them to the state tournament the previous two seasons.

“Soccer is probably my favorite sport but track and field has let me achieve my main goal of going to college,” Gaffney said. 

Washington State University, she said, was a perfect fit. 

“It’s really relieving to know that I have a path,” she added. “I went down there and absolutely fell in love with the college. I liked the coach and all the athletes. You know what they say about coming to a college and knowing right away? That actually happened.”

The next stop, however, is Cheney — but don’t expect Gaffney to be standing still on the red turf for very long.