Hubs face Spartans, Reapers in Sycamore Indoor Meet

Russell Hodges
Posted 3/15/17

Michael Drendel has been one of Rochelle’s best performers in the field events early on this season, and the senior Hub led the way once again as the boys track and field team took on Sycamore and Plano in the Sycamore Indoor Invitational this past Wednes

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Hubs face Spartans, Reapers in Sycamore Indoor Meet

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SYCAMORE — Michael Drendel has been one of Rochelle’s best performers in the field events early on this season, and the senior Hub led the way once again as the boys track and field team took on Sycamore and Plano in the Sycamore Indoor Invitational this past Wednesday.

Drendel finished first in the pole vault with a clearance of just over 12 feet, while junior Austin Tracey took fourth overall. Varsity senior Andrew Myers placed third in the high jump with a clearance of 5-7, while sophomore Isaac Musselman finished sixth at the varsity level in the high jump and second at the freshman-sophomore level in the triple jump with a leap of 36-7.

The Rochelle freshman-sophomore 3200-meter relay team landed in third behind freshmen Evan Horner, Uzziel Zarate, Diego Escobar and sophomore Jesse Mohica. The boys ran a time of 10:09.60, while the varsity squad of seniors Levi Johnson, Edwin Infante and sophomores Jessee Infante and Connor Lenkaitis clocked in at 9:21.25 for fifth place.

Freshmen Traevon Voss and Jeremiah Navejas teamed up with sophomores Alex Louck and Eddie Villalobos to win the frosh-soph 640-meter relay with a time of 1:22.78, while seniors Lance Huftalin and Matthew Drendel worked with junior Komla Gati and sophomore Austin Walsh to finish second in the varsity race at 1:19.52. Huftalin took third in the varsity 55-meter dash with at time of 7.10, and junior Frankie Herrera paced Rochelle in the 3200-meter run with a team-best time of 12:16.16.

Varsity senior Jake Rodriguez earned a top-6 finish in the 55-meter hurdles to continue his hot start to the 2016-17 season, and Lenkaitis remained impressive in the 800-meter run by finishing first for the frosh-soph group with a time of 2:18.95. Matthew Drendel and Walsh took home top-4 spots for the varsity team in the 800-meter run with times of 2:08.84 and 2:14.07.

Sophomore Benjamin DaCosta ran a 1:02.21 in the 400-meter dash to lead the frosh-soph team with a fourth-place finish, with Horner finishing two milliseconds behind at 1:02.23 for fifth place. Huftalin added two more top-6 placings to his invite resume with a sixth-best time of 58.29 in the varsity 400-meter dash and a fourth-best time of 25.40 in the varsity 200-meter dash.

The Hubs ended the day with a third-best finish by the frosh-soph group in the 1600-meter relay, clocking in at 4:03.52 behind Voss, DaCosta, Villalobos and Lenkaitis. Rochelle finished the invitational with 69.5 points, while Sycamore took first with 112 and Plano landed in second with 90.