Conquering all
her hurdles
 | Meghan Ferreira wins the 55-meter hurdles at the MSTCA Boys & Girls Elite Meet in February. (Jay Connor for The Boston Globe) |
Hurdles have always posed a challenge rather than a stumbling block for Meghan Ferreira. In or out of athletics.
She earned straight A’s in the classroom throughout her time at Mansfield High. But her focus now is on her upcoming freshman year at Harvard, and that challenge is academically a bit daunting.
“I don’t know what to expect schoolwork-wise,’’ Ferreira said in a phone conversation while en route to a family vacation in New Jersey on Sunday morning.
“Athletics helped me to get in, but I’m nervous,’’ she said. “But I think I’ll be able to manage.’’
Harvard track coach Jason Saretsky said her perception is the rule, not the exception. “That’s OK,’’ he said. “It’s just the nature of the beast with a place like Harvard.’’
“Ninety percent of our athletes for the first time will not be in the top 10 percent of their class; that’s just straight numbers and just how it is. There’s nothing to be too concerned about. She’s a great student, a great athlete. She’s got the total package. She’s got it all. She’s just being a bit humble there.
“What we try to convey to our athletes is if you’re able to get through the gauntlet, the challenge of getting into Harvard, it’s because you should be there.’’
Ferreira has built a very impressive resume: a two-time all-state champion in the 100-meter hurdles, the school record holder in the 100-, 50-, and 55-meter hurdles, as well as the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 (indoor) relays. And recently, she was honored as the Globe’s female Scholar-Athlete Award winner for District C.
Her ability to adapt - specifically, overcoming a mental block this spring that was hampering her start out of the blocks - impressed Saretsky.
The issue reached a critical point earlier this spring when Ferreira lost her first outdoor race of the season at the MSTCA Girls’ Invitational in May, finishing second with a time of 14.84 seconds, along with a fourth-place finish in the triple jump.
“That was the first time I lost in a while so I was a little shaken up,’’ said Ferreira, who won both events at the 2008 Division 2 state meet, and repeated this season in the 100 hurdles while placing third in the triple jump.
She also defended her All-State title this year, winning the hurdles in 14.54 seconds, just shy of a school record (14.51). She also helped captain Mansfield to its first girls’ outdoor track state championship.
Mansfield coach Derek Ellis pulled Ferreira off the 4 x 400-meter relay after the MSTCA meet so she could focus on hurdling, even though she helped win the relay at the 2008 All-States.
“When she got that second [at the MSTCA meet], she definitely wasn’t happy about that,’’ Ellis said. “But it was not like we needed to refocus her. She’s one of the most focused athletes I’ve ever met. It made her determined to prove she was one of the best athletes in the state. She definitely did that at All-States.’’
Ferreira was disappointed about being taken off the relay team, which went on to set an All-State record (3:53:01), but she knew it was more important to get her head back into the hurdles. She started working with the boys’ team on getting off the starting block faster. Mansfield hurdles coach Kimberly Spence and Matt Callanan, a 2008 Mansfield grad who runs for Syracuse, were instrumental in Ferreira’s turnaround.
“I convinced myself I had the worst start out there,’’ she said. “My coaches were telling me that I just needed to convince myself I had the best start out there.’’
Her rhythm returned by the Division 2 meet, but there was still one more sacrifice to make: skipping the senior all-night party the night before all-states.
“It was kind of a bummer; I wanted to go, but all my coaches said ‘the all-night party is not what you’ll remember after graduation.’ It’s going to be the all-state meet that I really remember a lot more. It was more important to me than the party.’’
The all-state victory also proved to be more gratifying than the previous year’s.
“Last year I didn’t have as much competition; I hadn’t lost at all during the season,’’ she said. “Last year I was more confident going into the race. This year I was more nervous because I knew people in the field had beat me in the past.’’
Ferreira is not the only graduating senior at Mansfield who plans to run in college.
Captain Michelle Jenssen, who set a school record at all-states by winning the 400-meter hurdles in 62.82 seconds, is headed to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The team’s third captain, Kelly McCabe, will attend the University of Rhode Island.
Ferreira will focus on the hurdles this fall, but both Ellis, her former coach, and Saretsky, her future coach, feel that eventually she could compete in the heptathlon.
“She high-jumps over 5 feet and long-jumps over 17, so she might be a good candidate to be a multi-event person,’’ Ellis said. “Whatever she does, I know she’ll thrive because she has an incredible work ethic.
Saretsky said that Ferreira is a “great competitor. She’s put up some good performances that should translate pretty quickly to being competitive in the Ivy League. She’s a great all-around person.’’
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