FAIRFIELD — By day, Kiana Letourneau is a mild-mannered senior at Lawrence High School.
But come late afternoon — and essentially any time she’s around a track — Letourneau turns into something of a superhero.
A soon to be four-year veteran of the outdoor track team, Letourneau — a three-year player on the Bulldogs’ girls basketball team — decided to give indoor track a try this season.
“My outdoor seasons, I’ve focused on one event for every single year,” Letourneau said. “I wanted to try indoor so I could try new events. I had heard about the heptathlon — that’s a bunch of events — and I’ve got to try some at some point. I just did this season to try new events and have fun with it.”
For Lawrence coach Tim Alberts, having Letourneau try new events was a good way to build her track resume for a possible college career.
“She’s been one of our top people in outdoor for the last three years,” Alberts said. “Last spring we did a decathlon at the beginning of the season to see what some of these kids would be able to do. Long story short, she impressed us in a few (events). My thought was, ‘Jeez, I’d like to see what we can do for her for the collegiate side of things, get her to be a heptathlete so that more (colleges) will watch her.'”
Letourneau is not only learning new events, she’s excelling in them. She’s breaking records in them. Never a long jumper, Letourneau broke the school’s long jump record on her first try. Ever.
Her jump of 15-feet-11 is not just a school record. It currently sits as the best distance amongst Class A teams in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference, and it is tied for fourth-best in the state, along with Emma White of Cheverus.
“I never thought of trying long jump,” Letourneau said. “Once I tried it, that’s so fun. That’s one of my favorite (events) so far.”
But it doesn’t end there. Letourneau’s least favorite event this season is the shot put. Except it’s also one of her best events. Her throw of 31-3 during a meet at Colby College in Waterville on Jan. 14 is the best in KVAC A and 11th-best in the state.
How about the 55 meter hurdles? She’s a little down in that area. Her time of 7.85 is second-best in KVAC A, and tied for 10th-best in Class A.
We haven’t even gotten to her most comfortable events — the 200 and 400. Her 200 time (27.59) is the best in KVAC A, third-best in Class A. Her 400 time (1:02.44) is — you guessed it — the best in KVAC A and third-best in the state.
Long story short, Letourneau is pretty talented at track and field.
“As the coach, one of the things I know is she doesn’t really know what the (record) numbers are,” Alberts said. “If it’s the 400, she knows what to do. When it’s the 200, she knows what to do. When she did the long jump? She had no idea. When we put in her in the shot put? She had no idea. After every meet, we try to tell the kids ‘you got (personal records)’ or ‘you qualified (for KVACs or states).’ I’d look at her and go ‘and automatically qualifying for conference and states.’ I sound like a broken record.”
It shouldn’t be much of a surprise, given her genes. Her father, Steve Letourneau and her uncle, Greg Letourneau, are both former Lawrence track athletes. So, too, was her mother, Lisa Letourneau (then Lisa Gurney) as a high schooler at Winslow.
But the family member Kiana Letourneau followed around as a child and help inspire to get into track was her sister, Vanessa Holman. A star track athlete at Lawrence, Holman went on to compete at the University of Maine. To help add fuel to the family fire, Holman is currently an assistant coach with one of Lawrence’s main rivals — Messalonskee — and is married to Eagles track coach Matt Holman.
“I would go to some of her track meets when she was at (University of Maine),” Letourneau said. “I loved to run around the track with her, and it was just fun. That’s when I got interested. She’d sign me up for all of these 5Ks to do with her, and I did a triathlon when I was younger.”
With talent and a pedigree like Letourneau’s, it would be easy to rest on her natural ability. But as Alberts can attest, Letourneau is one of the hardest workers on the team.
“She’s a very hard worker, she’ll do whatever we ask her to do and then some,” Alberts said.
Letourneau has a healthy love-hate relationship at times with her sport.
“It gets me so nervous,” Letourneau said. “But the feeling of accomplishment I get when I cross the finish line, that’s why I do it.”
The only downside for Letourneau with her newfound events is that she will only be able to pick three to participate in for the KVAC and Class A meets.
“I know (400 and 200, for both KVACs and states), and I think for KVACs I’ll be doing shot put,” Letourneau said. “And I think at states, probably long jump.”
Letourneau is planning on the same strategy during the spring outdoor season. She said she’ll be adding the 800, javelin and 110 hurdles to her events.
She said she would like to get into pediatrics as she moves on to college, as well as continue her track career.
Alberts said because Letourneau hasn’t done multiple events until this season, she will have better durability for the next level.
“For college purposes, I think she’ll bring more fresh legs and innocence to a team than a lot of these girls who have been doing cross country and outdoor for four years,” Alberts said. “I think that’s a good selling point.”
Whichever college she attends, she’ll be ready. Whatever event it may be.
Dave Dyer — 621-5640
ddyer@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @Dave_Dyer
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