| Title: | Head Cross Country/Track Coach |
| Phone: | (781) 283-3105 |
| Email: | jbabingt@wellesley.edu |
B.A., Williams College
J.D., Harvard Law School
John Babington enters his 26th year as head coach
of the Wellesley College cross country team. He also leads
Wellesley’s track program, which was elevated to varsity
status in 2011. During his tenure, Wellesley has captured five New
England Women’s and Men’s Conference (NEWMAC)
Championships, most recently in 2005. Prior to the inception of the
NEWMAC, Babington guided Wellesley to four straight New England
Women’s 8 (NEW 8) Championships from 1993-96.
Babington has been voted Coach of the Year by his peers seven times. He was named NEW 8 Coach of the Year three times, in 1993, 1994 and 1996. Since the inception of NEWMAC, he has been voted Coach of the Year in 1999, 2000, 2005 and 2009. His last honor comes after he led the Blue to a second place finish at the NEWMAC Championships.
Babington’s passion for teaching the art of running is not limited to his career at Wellesley. He served as head coach of the United States National Team at the 1990 World Cross Country Championships, and was an assistant coach on the U.S. Track & Field Team at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
Additionally, Babington was named U.S. Senior Women’s Leader for the 2001 World Cross Country Championships in Belgium and was a member of the U.S. coaching staff at the 2003 World Indoor Track & Field Championships in Birmingham, England.
Prior to Wellesley, Babington was an assistant coach at Harvard and head coach of the Liberty Athletic Club, a nationally prominent women’s running club.
Babington, a graduate of Williams College and Harvard Law School, is an active runner, competing in road races, cross country and track & field. He completed the Boston Marathon 13 consecutive times through 1980, and continues to race in masters competition at distances up to 10K.
| Title: | Assistant Coach |
| Email: | mlabella@wellesley.edu |
B.A., Boston University
Megan LaBella enters her second season as an assistant for the
Wellesley cross country and track and field teams.
LaBella worked as a strength and conditioning coach and personal trainer at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning, before becoming an assistant track and field coach at Wheaton College in 2010.
She graduated from Boston University in 2008 with a degree in Photojournalism and is currently seeking a Master’s of Education degree at BU.
As a college athlete, LaBella was a four year member of the track team, competing in the pentathlon, heptathlon, high jump, long jump, and triple jump. She was a member of the 2008 Outdoor America East Championship Team and was a 2007-2008 member of the America East All-Academic Track and Field Team.
LaBella is a USA track and Field Level I and Level II Certified Coach in the combined events, as well as a National Strength and Conditioning Association Strength and Conditioning Specialist.
| Title: | Assistant Coach |
| Email: | awade2@wellesley.edu |
Alison Wade joins the Wellesley cross country and track and
field coaching staffs this season after serving as the head
men’s and women’s cross country coach at Siena College
for the past three years. During her tenure, the Siena
program improved each year and the men’s team ran faster than
it had in over ten years.
Prior to working at Siena, Wade was a volunteer assistant at the
University of Virginia in the Spring of 2009 and helped the
men’s team to its first ever ACC co-championship in track and
field. Wade also helped the Amherst College women (1st),
Tufts University women (5th) and Amherst College (12th) earn their
highest finished at the NCAA Cross County Championships. In
just over three years working at the DIII level at Amherst and
tufts, she coached athletes to 19 All-America honors, one national
title, and three national runner-up finishes.
Before coaching at the collegiate level, Wade coached the Amherst
Regional High School girls cross country team to three consecutive
Massachusetts state titles between 2002-2004.
Coach Wade has also worked for the Women’s Sports Foundation
and New York Road Runners. She received her Master’s in
Sports Leadership from Northeastern University in 2007 and her
bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College in 1998. As an
athlete at Bowdoin, Wade helped the cross country team to a
7th place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships which
is the program’s highest-ever finish.
