Fresh/Soph girls track team wins NIB-12 title

Varsity track team places eighth overall

Russell Hodges
Posted 5/7/17

The Lady Hubs track and field team suited up for action at Rochelle Township High School this past Friday, with both the varsity and the freshman/sophomore teams aiming to bring home Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference Meet victories.

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Fresh/Soph girls track team wins NIB-12 title

Varsity track team places eighth overall

Posted

ROCHELLE — The Lady Hubs track and field team suited up for action at Rochelle Township High School this past Friday, with both the varsity and the freshman/sophomore teams aiming to bring home Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference Meet victories.

And for the second straight year, that’s exactly what the underclassmen did.

Scoring a meet-high 140 points, the freshmen and sophomores finished first overall, while the varsity girls placed eighth with 26 points. Freshman Macey Ryan certainly did her part, running a time of 13.10 seconds in the 100-meter dash to win the event and break teammate Jacie Wyatt’s conference record set last year.

Fresh/Soph

Friday night’s conference meet proved the Lady Hubs have a bright future in the throwing events, as both freshmen Cristina Alfano and Gabby Harding took home event victories for their team. Alfano’s heave of 30-9 in the shot put earned her first place, while Harding’s discus throw of 93-9 put her in first as well. Alfano was the runner-up in the discus competition with a toss of 86-8, and Harding finished third in the shot put (28-9 ½).

Over by the launching pits, freshman Katie Van Hise led Rochelle’s freshman/sophomore team in the long jump with a distance of 13-9 ½, while freshman teammate Maddie Ohlinger recorded the Lady Hubs’ best mark in the triple jump for eighth place (27-2 ½). Sophomore Cam Turner landed one-half of an inch behind Ohlinger (27-2) for ninth overall.

Rochelle’s underclassmen won three of the four relay events on Friday, with the Lady Hubs bringing home victories in the 400-meter relay, the 800-meter relay and the 1600-meter relay. Sophomores Abby Tilton and Makenna Ferrari teamed up with freshmen Angie Saldana and the record-setter Ryan to run a 54.21 in the 400-meter dash. Later, Ferrari and Saldana joined forces with sophomores Lila Roush and Grace Garcia to take the 800-meter dash with a time of 1:57.33.

Representing the winning 1600-meter relay team were Turner, Tilton, Van Hise and freshman Emma Smith, who clocked in at 4:32.23. Rounding out the relay crews was the 3200-meter relay team of Smith, Turner, Van Hise and sophomore Anne Hickey, who placed second with a time of 11:13.66.

Sophomore Katherine Bakken led Rochelle in the 3200-meter run, finishing third with a time of 12:52.81 while freshman teammate Britney Baez (13:48.57) took fourth. Smith placed third in the 800-meter run (2:38.91), and Hickey crossed the finish line behind her with a fourth-best time of 2:41.52.

Rochelle’s top hurdles nearly tied in the 100-meter hurdles, with Tilton claiming the win (18.54) and sophomore teammate Cheyene Watson (18.59) taking second. Tilton also finished first in the 300-meter hurdles with a winning time of 52.93.

Varsity

The strongest performance of the meet came at the very end for the Lady Hubs, as juniors Jacie Wyatt, Morgan Knight, Cesca Vardman and Morgan Baker teamed up to finish second in the 1600-meter relay with a time of 4:06.61. The four girls also placed fourth in both the 400-meter relay (51.02) and the 800-meter relay (1:50.85), while Wyatt took second in the 400-meter run with a time of 1:00.23.

Junior Allysa Harding earned two top-5 finishes in the field events, taking third in the shot put (30-1 ½) and fifth in the discus throw (94-7). Anchoring Rochelle in the open distance races were juniors Ashley Ackerman and Ashley Ramos, who ran respective times of 3:08.50 and 3:13.07 in the 800-meter run. Ramos clocked in at 6:48.90 in the 1600-meter run, with Ackerman crossing the finish line at 6:55.16.