Some track and field throwers are naturally gifted.
Raylyn Hardy was not. But over four years, she worked to become the second-best girls discus thrower in the history of Bordentown Regional High School.
The Scotties senior sealed her climb and her career by capturing a sectional championship and advancing for the first time to the pinnacle of the state’s sport, the Meet of Champions.
“It meant, like, a lot for me,” said Hardy. “It felt like I accomplished something very big because going from freshman year, not going to any meets, to then going to Meet of Champs, being with the best girls in the state, I truly feel like I accomplished a lot. I built up all that confidence, built up all that momentum to just get where I was at the end of my senior season. It just kind of felt like a breath of relief when I finally made it.”
It was quite the journey. Hardy, who could trace her athletic career back further in field hockey and basketball, came out for track and field at the request of Bill Lloyd, the throws coach who also coaches the Scotties girls basketball team. Lloyd makes his newcomers try all three throws — shot put, discus and javelin — to see which best suits them.
“A lot of times, I’ll know in three practices whether this kid’s got it,” Lloyd said. “And Raylyn struggled. Me and her joke about it, even to this day. She didn’t come in and have natural ability. She really had to work at it. And the jumps she made from freshman to sophomore year and then sophomore to junior year were exponential.”
Hardy was taking so long to adjust to throws as a freshman that Bordentown didn’t have her compete in the big weekend meets. But when she started to think about the following year, she found that she wanted to use the tools like her 6-foot frame that she did have.
“I looked like a thrower and I looked like I was strong, so why not come out for the throwing?” she said. “But I guess in reality, I wasn’t really that strong with it. I just didn’t really get the groove of things. I just really wasn’t that passionate my freshman year. But then it did kind of hit me at the end of my freshman year when I was like, I want to keep on practicing, I want to try and get better at this.”
Hardy showed immense improvement sophomore year, throwing over 100 feet in discus to place fifth at the Burlington County Championships and taking third at the Central Jersey Group 2 state meet to qualify for the Group 2 state meet for the first time. Her weight lifting and offseason work showed.
“Raylyn really had to work through the techniques and stuff, and that’s what made her special,” Lloyd said. “Her work ethic was off the charts.”
Her success sophomore year helped to keep her hooked on her newest sport. She continued to shine in field hockey and basketball. She earned a starting spot in field hockey and was a staple on their defense. In a similar pattern, she also grew in field hockey.
“My sophomore year is when I broke out of my shell and began to be more aggressive out on the field, which is why I got the starting spot that I did,” Hardy said. “And without the help of my head coach and also my JV coach, I don’t think I would be where I was this fall.”
She continued to climb in the discus — and the shot — as a junior. She won the Burlington County Championships with a personal record 118-10 throw. She again qualified for the Group 2 state meet in discus, and also in shot. But ended with her painfully close to MOC. At the group meet, she was ninth with the top eight advancing to finals.
“That’s what kind of made me want to power through this season,” she said. “I didn’t want to feel the way I felt last year during states.”
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To take another step forward, Hardy made a significant sacrifice in for her senior season. After playing field hockey in the fall, she elected not to play her fourth year of basketball for Bordentown.
“It was a little tough on me just because I’ve been playing basketball for a very long time, so it was like a big change in my life from not playing a winter sport anymore,” Hardy said. “But it kind of did put more discipline on myself to say I have to go to the gym, I have to start getting ready for spring because basketball is no longer there to help me for that.”
The girls basketball team missed her rebounding and toughness, but Hardy used the time to get stronger and prepare for her final spring track and field season. It paid off as she came in more confident than ever.
“We knew after last year she had set her expectations high because we had really seen growth in her,” Lloyd said. “She’s been doing it since her freshman year so this is her fourth year. We set our goals and she wanted to try and set the school record. Unfortunately, she didn’t do that. But she wanted to place high at sectionals and she ended up winning sectionals. So being a sectional champ was quite an accomplishment for her.”
After placing fourth as a junior in discus at sectionals, Hardy’s 116-11 throw won the CJ 2 title this year. It helped raise her confidence in an up and down spring when she at times put too much pressure on herself.
“Last year, I did win counties and this year I didn’t,” she said. “I was in second by only just a couple inches so it kind of pushed me to make the best out of it. I tried to throw my hardest during sectionals and it did come out with a winning title for me, so I was very happy.”
The win propelled her to the Group 2 meet where she had her best throw of the season to capture third, her highest finish at that level to earn a spot in the MOC. Teammate Brielle Besserman placed sixth at the group meet.
“It was a lot of help because I feel like me and her, we pushed each other and whenever she did good, I did good because in my head, I’m like, OK, my team is doing good so I have to show up for her as well,” Hardy said. “Me and Brielle always talked about having like a little rivalry. Whenever she hit a PR, then I would go ahead and PR. Brielle would be in first, then I would come up and be in first, so we always laughed about that. But I feel like having a teammate like that, it just pushes you so much more because they’re there for you your whole entire season. It just creates a big bond between you and your teammate.”
The pair both graduated this June, leaving a huge void in the discus for Bordentown. But they have left their mark together.
“When we went to the group championships the North Jersey schools were like, who are the Scotties?” Lloyd said. “They’re both wearing their Scotties stuff. And I like that as a coach too, getting out there and putting Bordentown out on the map.”
Hardy’s story is a great one for future Scotties throwers. Whether they are naturally gifted or not, she is proof of how much someone can develop their abilities. She heads to Monmouth University to study nursing with a spot firmly secure in the Bordentown record books and a trip to the Meet of Champions to wrap up quite a career.
“I’m going to definitely miss the competition because I’m a very competitive person,” Hardy said. “Track brings me to a certain point where I’m like, I have to do this for myself. I feel like everybody should feel that about a certain sport or certain thing that they do because it helped me so much to just believe in myself. And I bonded with a lot of teammates, and a lot of competition as well.”
Bordentown discus thrower Raylyn Hardy, left, with teammate Brielle Besserman.,
