Hadden, Bailey rise to the top
Toolbox
By Anna Grearson TIMES ARGUS STAFF - Published: July 2, 2009
In an area with more than one solid track and field team, choosing a male and female track and field athlete of the year is no easy task.
The dominating performances of Spaulding junior Kelcie Bailey and U-32 senior Lucas Hadden, however, shouted – not spoke – for themselves.
Bailey, a sprint specialist who also plays soccer and competes in indoor track, won the 400-meter dash at the Division I state championships and set a school record in doing so with a time of 57.93 seconds.
At one point at the end of the season, she broke the school record three weekends in a row.
"Her level of competition at Division I is a lot harder, and when she was in the meets we saw her in, she was pretty dominant," U-32 coach Mark Chaplin said.
Bailey won the 200-meter dash at this year's Essex Invitational and finished 11th (25.97) in the 200 at the New England championships. She was second in the 200 at the state meet, running it in 26.04 seconds.
"She was injured part of the year but still finished first or second in every race she ran," Spaulding coach Brad Bessette said. "She has a lot of talent and she's a hard worker in practice. She's well-liked by the other kids and shows a lot of leadership. When she says stuff the kids listen to her."
Bailey also ran on the 4x100-meter and 4x400-meter relay teams for Spaulding and competes in the summer for a club program out of Burlington along with Crimson Tide teammate Catie White.
"She probably got into track for training for soccer, she's a very good soccer player," Bessette said of Bailey. "She was looking for something to do in the spring."
While Bailey will return for her senior season next spring, Hadden will begin his collegiate track and field career in Winston-Salem, N.C., at Wake Forest University.
Hadden will join the Demon Deacons after breaking his own javelin records several times. At the New England qualifier meet at Essex he was named the Vermont Field Athlete of the Meet after winning both the javelin and the discus by a wide margin. Hadden won the discus by 24 feet, 4 inches and the javelin by 3 feet, 2 inches.
Hadden also finished second in the 100-meter dash in the Division II state championships with a time of 11.89 seconds. His furthest javelin throw sailed 193 feet, 7 inches.
"He was the star of track and field at U-32 for the last four years," Chaplin said. "He won jav all four years – he works year-round at it. He spends the winter in the weight room and spends the summer going to high-level competition and plays football as well. He really works at it very hard. He got quite a bit stronger this year and did a little bit of indoor track, too."
Hadden's father was also a javelin thrower and Chaplin said the elder Hadden has been coaching Lucas since he was young.
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