By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

AUBURN – The last time Lindsey Visbaras took to the track, her jump of 37-feet, 3-inches won the triple jump – by almost four feet.

“I tend to perform better with strong competition,” said Visbaras. “so it’s hard to get my times up for the states to have a good spot to run in, so that’s a challenge by itself, especially with the weather this year. It’s been hard.”

A 37-foot jump wasn’t her best? That alone is enough to turn heads among the Maine high school track community. Turning heads is nothing new to Visbaras, though. This weekend, at the KVAC meet, she is favored in at least two events, and will be in the hunt for four individual titles – the triple and long jumps, and the 100- and 200-meter dashes.

“We were without her for two of the five meets we had this year, so that made us, well, not so much nervous, but you know in a meet like that she’s worth anywhere from 20 to 40 points at any meet you go to,” said EL girls’ coach Rebecca Hefty. “We can count on her, but we have to be careful about how many points we can actually count on her for. We were going to try and hold her back a bit during the year, but with her missing those two meets, she still has done four events at every one, but we can count on her for points in those.”

Learning to leap

Visbaras gravitated to the jumping pit early, starting in the summer track program run by Carolyn Court and Tom Menendez.

“I started rec when I was nine and did that all the way up to middle school and then high school,” said Visbaras. “I had always done sprinting and jumping in summer track and then when I was in middle school, I didn’t do as much running. I was one of the shorter ones, not as fast and then I finally caught up in high school.”

And that lean toward the jumps, according to Visbaras’ father, nothing to do with the fact that he was himself a record-setting jumper in college.

“I never told her what to do at all,” said Kim Visbaras. “She started in the summer program on her own, and their philosophy was to get every kid to try every event, see what they liked. She may have known what I did in college and in high school, but I don’t think at that age she really did. She gravitated to the jumps, though. They asked me whether I had taught her the triple jump and I told them that I didn’t even know she was doing the triple jump. They told me she was a natural, and not through any prodding of mine. I guess when they say the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree they really mean it.”

Kim still holds Brandeis school records in the long jump, triple jump and high jump, all set in 1977.

Sprinting ahead

As Lindsey grew into a frame that ended up being perfect for a jumper, she also started sprinting.

“She wasn’t a sprinter her freshman year,” said Hefty. “When I came in her sophomore year, I said that I think we need to run her, because no one had ever run her before,. I remember we had a time trial and she was the fastest kid out of all of them. I said I thought we should try her in a relay. It was outrage, but then she went out and ran the fastest time of everyone in the whole race. She dominated.”

In her first try at the 100-meter dash, Visbaras ran a 12.7-second time and won her race. In her first 200, she broke 28 seconds. From there, it has been a matter of training.

“The running has been sort of a surprise, but it’s probably been the most pleasant surprise of all because initially the coaching staff here didn’t think she was a sprinter,” said Kim, “but if you look at what’s happened since, it’s a good thing they started doing it. Speed, strength and confidence. All of those things, I think, come with success and her success running helps her jumps and vice versa so it’s a great sort of a 1-2 punch.”

Final results

This year, to go with her 37-foot triple jump, Visbaras has a time of 12.94 seconds in the 100, a time of 27.34 in the 200, and a distance close to 17 feet in the long jump. She will be favored in the triple jump at the KVAC meet this weekend, and will try to defend her state title in the triple jump next week at Windham High School.

“One of the things we haven’t done this year is really look at what’s out there,” said Hefty. “We haven’t emphasized the strengths of other teams, but I thought, coming into the KVAC’s and weighing the options, that running her in four individual events makes more sense because we’re still going to score in the relay without her.”

Lindsey quickly quashed any presence of outside pressure.

“I’m used to it now,” said Lindsey. “It’s not so much that it’s pressure from outside, but I pressure myself to always do better. When I do less than what I usually do, it makes me upset. I don’t really feel that if I mess up it’s the end of the world or anything like that.”

“In the three or four years, she’s really grown as an individual, as an athlete and as a competitor,” said Hefty. “She’s the kind of kid that, when the competition is on the line, she can step up to it no matter what.”