SYCAMORE — The Lady Hubs track and field team started the 2018 season strong on Tuesday, with the varsity girls taking first place out of eight high schools and the junior varsity girls placing second at the Sycamore Girls Indoor Invitational. Rochelle’s varsity squad scored 156 points, while the junior varsity group totaled 85 points. Sycamore won the junior varsity meet with 90 points.

“The kids are excited and there’s quite a bit of mojo floating around Rochelle Township High School right now,” head coach Kyle Kissack said. “The girls want a part of that. Coming out here and competing is something they’ve been looking forward to.”

Seniors Jacie Wyatt and Cesca Vardman led Rochelle in the sprints on Tuesday, with Wyatt (7.99 seconds) taking third and Vardman (8.00) finishing fourth in the 55-meter dash. Wyatt took second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 28.36, while Vardman placed third in 29.36. Seniors Morgan Baker (1:06.76) and Morgan Knight (1:08.36) finished second and fourth in the 400-meter dash, respectively.

“If we had to pin down a strength of our team it would be our sprints and our long sprints,” Kissack said. “We have the most depth there. They’re all itching to compete with each other and that’s probably the best thing to have as a coach… A random Wednesday night is about as competitive as a Friday night track meet.”

Junior Cam Turner (2:54.37) and sophomore Emma Smith (2:54.70) cruised past the competition during the 800-meter run, placing first and second respectively. Junior Katherine Bakken anchored Rochelle’s distance group on Tuesday, winning the 1600-meter run (6:07.04) while senior Hannah Cruz (6:15.56) took second. Bakken placed second in the 3200-meter run (13:39.37) and sophomore Britney Baez (15:07.62) took third.

“Katherine is going to be the leader of that group,” Kissack said. “She’s done a ton of work in the offseason to get ready for her moment this spring, so we’re counting on her for some big things. Hannah’s in her first season running track and she’s done work over the offseason to fit into that group. Cam Turner and Emma Smith are nice additions as well.”

Juniors Cheyene Watson (10.46) and Abby Tilton (10.88) placed third and fourth in the 55-meter hurdles, respectively. Rochelle finished fifth in the 640-meter relay (1:35.63) and the 1600-meter relay (4:56.57) races. Wyatt led the Lady Hubs in high jump, winning with a clearance of 4-10.

Senior Alexis Bialas took first in pole vault at 6-6, while Turner won the triple jump (30-8.50) with sophomore Maddie Ohlinger (30-4.50) finishing second. Baker (15-1) recorded Rochelle’s top distance in long jump for third place. Sophomore Gabrielle Harding (31-5) and senior Allysa Harding (31-0) ranked third and fourth in shot put on Tuesday, respectively.

“We had some great performances from Cam and Maddie in the triple jump,” Kissack said. “They both hit personal records and they’ll both be leading us in the jump pits. Alexis will be taking care of our pole vaulting duties and Morgan will be doing some long jumping for us.”

Rochelle will be in Byron on Saturday for its second meet of the season.

JV

Sophomore Macey Ryan ran Rochelle’s fastest 55-meter dash time on Tuesday, finishing first in 7.90 to win the event. Ryan also won the 200-meter dash in 29.97, with Tilton taking second in 30.86. Freshman Sofia Lenkaitis took first in the 400-meter dash (1:11.18), while sophomore Katie Van Hise (1:11.94) finished third.

Sophomore Julissa Hernandez ran the 800-meter run in 3:11.98 for third place, while junior Abby Wagner finished eighth with a time of 3:24.95. Lenkaitis (11.43) and junior Grace Garcia (11.80) placed fourth and fifth in the 55-meter hurdles, respectively. Rochelle’s junior varsity 1600-meter relay team finished third in 5:33.38, and the 640-meter relay group placed sixth in 1:52.59.

Van Hise cleared 4-4 in the high jump for first place among junior varsity athletes, and freshman Afi Gati took fourth at 4-2. Sophomore Cristina Alfano placed second in the shot put with a heave of 31-10, the longest throw of any Rochelle girl on the evening.