There many facets to Bailey Kiernan’s personality, just like there are with any high school athlete who gets mostly As and Bs in the classroom. But when it comes to track and field, three traits stand out the most: confidence, determination and toughness.
A standout sophomore jumper for Nottingham, Kiernan’s confidence and determination are exhibited by her words.
“I have goals set for myself for my senior year,” she said. “For long jump, I’d like to hit 17-11, for triple I want to hit a 38 and for high jump I want to hit, like, 5-4.”
They would be school records for the triple and high, and one inch short of tying the long. With a PR of 34-feet, 4-inches, she is only three short of tying Marissa Colon’s Northstar triple jump mark and could do it this year. Stephanie Hicks has the high jump mark of 5-2.
And then there’s this little comment from the refreshing Bailey.
“Jumping is all in the approach,” she said. “You have to jump long and stretch out. I’ve been trying the Olympic method, trying to swim in the air. I’m trying to teach myself to do that. It’s difficult to learn. But I’m gonna learn it.”
Ask her about her dual meet success, and the answer isn’t surprising.
“I usually get first in (dual) meets in high jump, long jump, triple jump,” she said. “I don’t get first when I have an off day sometimes. But that’s rare. I usually don’t have off days.”
There are some who say talk is cheap, but Nottingham first-year coach Jim Becker loves the inner-drive and assuredness Kiernan possesses.
“Bailey is real confident,” Becker said. “She works hard in practice and has seen her work ethic pay off in increased heights and distances. I think her confidence is a true asset. She goes into every event confident she will place. It’s that mindset that allows her to brush off a bad jump, confident that the next one could be a new PR.”
As for the toughness, that is displayed every time Kiernan goes out to compete. She came down with a case of shin splints over a month ago and, as any track performer realizes, they are painful and can often distract from the mission at hand.
Kiernan, however, refuses to rest.
“Eh, it’s a lot, but I still keep jumping even though I’m in pain,” she said. “I just have to deal with it.”
How?
“I just have to put the pain out of my mind and do it,” she said, as if all she needs to do is press a button. “I used to be a gymnast, so I’m used to dealing with it.”
And while Becker loves that attitude, he also knows that he and the other coaches need to monitor Kiernan lest she go too far.
“She is very determined,” he said. “She’s a tough kid to fight through those injuries and still perform at such a high level. I have to keep reminding her not to overdo it in practice so as not to aggravate her shin splints even more. She just wants to jump and jump and jump some more. Right now we are trying to walk that fine line between too much work, causing a flare up with the injury, and too little work, which would make her less competitive.”
It would be near impossible to make Kiernan less competitive, and it seems just as impossible to make her any more competitive than she already is. When she answers questions, she doesn’t elaborate too much, but cuts right to what is being asked. And each response gives more of an insight to the fire inside.
“I’ve always been competitive,” Kiernan said. “I don’t always have to win, it’s not about winning. I just like to do good. If I know there’s a jumper that’s definitely gonna beat me, it doesn’t really bother me, because they’ve been working toward it too. But I have to be happy with how I did.”
It’s hard to find a more mature attitude than that from a 10th-grader. As for that competitiveness, Kiernan feels it might come from older brother Bill, who played basketball for Nottingham and has the school’s high jump record of 6-foot-9.
‘I love jumping, because I can set higher bars for myself.’
“No one’s ever going to break that,” said Bailey, throwing out the gauntlet. “I used to go watch him jump in high school. I always looked up to him, and I always wanted to jump as high as him but I don’t think that’s gonna happen, I’d have to jump 6-9. I couldn’t believe it when I watched him. I thought it was really hard to get over that thing.”
Billy comes to his sister’s practices when he has a chance and offers advice, and Becker feels that’s a great source of help. He thinks it could also be a hindrance, but Kiernan does not let it be.
“I think having an older sibling who excelled in the sport and the same, specific events is a double-edged sword,” he said. “In a less confident individual, sometimes it is hard to excel in such a large shadow. In a confident person like Bailey, it’s almost like a standard to uphold, and she is working hard to do that.”
Unlike most young athletes, Kiernan did not play the basic sports of softball, basketball or soccer. She started gymnastics at age 7 and reached Level 9 while competing for Future Stars in Hamilton. By high school, however, she had enough.
“I was just done,” she said. “I wanted to try new things.”
Thus, she made the cheerleading team and also followed Bill’s footsteps to the track team. She felt that competing in gymnastics helped prepare her for jumps “because I have a lot of strengths in my legs.”
As a freshman, Kiernan’s best event was high jump, as she cleared 4-8. She has become a better triple jumper this year, despite her rocky start of learning the steps on her approach.
“I didn’t pick it up the first couple days, I wanted to give up,” she said. “The third day, I started picking it up. I think last year my highest was 33 flat. So I went up a lot higher this year.”
Aside from her dual meet success, Kiernan had a breakout performance at the Long Branch Invitational on May 6. Her trademark confidence was not brimming that day as she admitted that due to all the talent there “I went in thinking I wasn’t going to place.”
Instead, she placed three times, winning gold medals in the long jump and triple jump while taking a fifth in the high jump. She was coming off her PR of 34-4 in a dual meet with Allentown that Becker feels kick started her.
“Bailey was really determined (at Long Branch),” the coach said. “She had her sights set on the school record for triple jump ever since. I think that gave her the drive she needed to excel at Long Branch. Plus, Bailey is always going hard in every event and on that day she was really on her game. As with any athlete, success reinforces confidence. I’m sure her success that day was validation of her work ethic and reinforced the confidence she already has.”
At the May 20 Mercer County championships, Kiernan only gained one medal, taking a sixth in the triple jump at 33-1¾. She just missed medalling in the long jump, tying for seventh with a mark of 15-7¾; just shy of her PR of 15-8 at East Brunswick. She tied for 13th in high jump by tying her season-high of 4-8.
“I think this was a good effort for her,” Becker said. “I’m sure she would not say that because she has such high standards for herself.”
Good call, coach.
“I feel like I could have done better in the long jump but my legs were kind of giving out in the finals,” she said. “The triple jump, I could have gone longer but my legs were kind of dead because of the shin splints.”
Becker and Kiernan both feel her best event is the triple jump but heading into the Central Jersey Group III meet they felt she could get could get top-six finishes in all three jumps, which would send her on to the Groups meet.
Wherever she finishes actually, however, it would not matter. When it comes to Kiernan, the only place she wants to be after each jump, is a little better than her last one.
“I love jumping, because I can set higher bars for myself,” she said. “I can’t just hit one number, I need to hit higher numbers than I already have. It will always give me something to work for. I never worry about winning, I just worry about PRs.”
But if they lead to wins, the ultra-competitive Kiernan is not going to complain.
Nottingham High’s Bailey Kiernan jumps during the Mercer County Championships May 20, 2017 at Steinert. (Photo by Wes Kirkpatrick.),
