WINDHAM – The smile on Allison Fereshetian’s face is unmistakeable. Anyone following Leavitt Area High School track and field – or Maine track and field in general, for that matter – has seen it before.

Many times.

But this Fereshetian – the last of four – does things a little bit differently. She’s loud, boisterous even. She dances between races, gabs with her friends and teammates, and jumps up and down to cheer them on when she isn’t racing.

And she sprints.

“I actually started out as a distance runner, too,” Fereshetian said, referring to her three siblings, all of whom have run long distance for Leavitt.

“I just started doing hurdles one day, and I was good at it, so I stuck with it,” she said.

At Saturday’s Class B state meet, Fereshetian ran a 15.58-second 100-meter hurdles race and placed third. In the 200, she ran 26.35 and placed second, and in the 400 – a race she “absolutely hates” – she finished seventh and earned one point.

Her brother, Justin, is a distance runner for the Hornets. He had a solid day Saturday, too, spending most of his free time juggling between placing seventh in the 800 and fifth in the mile.

“At the beginning of the season, I set really high goals for myself,” Justin said.

He met two of those goals Saturday with a 4:35 in the mile, and a 2:03 in the 800.

But the day – at least in the Fereshetian family – belonged to the freshman, Allison.

“It’s amazing to see,” Leavitt coach Christina Rivard said. “The Fereshetian family has always been distance runners, and it’s really exiting to see them step up, and now they’re a sprinting family, too.”


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