PLANO — The Rochelle Hub track and field team battled in the Interstate 8 Conference Championships on Wednesday, with both the varsity and fresh-soph teams finishing sixth out of eight schools. The varsity team scored 16 points and the fresh-soph boys totaled 37 points. The Hubs will now prepare for the IHSA 2A Rochelle Sectional on Thursday, June 10.

Junior Zach Sanford highlighted Rochelle’s top scorers on the varsity team, finishing second in the shot put with a distance of 13.75 meters. Junior Ryan Simmons placed fourth in the high jump with a height of 1.78 meters and the 400-meter relay team took fifth in 47.43 seconds.

“I really wanted our freshmen and sophomores who’ve been competing on the varsity level to see how well they stacked up against the underclassmen as we move into the future,” head coach Dale Bergeson said. “I thought our kids worked really hard and I’m proud of them.”

At the fresh-soph level, freshman Caleb Wyssbrod took home the 400-meter dash title with a time of 56.99 seconds and the 400-meter relay team, led by sophomores Hayden Inman and Landon DeLille, also finished first in the conference with a winning time of 48.32 seconds. Rochelle will have about one week to train for the sectional meet next Thursday at 4 p.m.

“I think our sectional will be a bit easier than our conference meet,” Bergeson said. “We have some bigger schools in our conference that aren’t in our sectional. I think Zach is close in the shot put and the discus and I know Ryan is only a few inches away in the high jump… Hayden’s around 10 feet in the pole vault and if he clears 10 feet 6 inches, he has a chance to win.”