Lady Hubs track team boasting plenty of depth

Large fresh/soph group providing bright future for program

Russell Hodges
Posted 5/22/17

Three meet victories, a conference championship and three state-qualifying relay teams are a lot to accomplish in one track and field season.

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Lady Hubs track team boasting plenty of depth

Large fresh/soph group providing bright future for program

Posted

ROCHELLE — Three meet victories, a conference championship and three state-qualifying relay teams are a lot to accomplish in one track and field season.

But that’s exactly what the Lady Hubs did, and the scariest thought for Rochelle’s future opponents is that there’s more to come.

Without a single senior on their roster, the Lady Hubs turned in an excellent 2016-17 season, bringing home wins in the Sycamore Indoor Invitational (junior varsity), the Oregon Landers-Loomis Girls Invitational (varsity) and the Ogle County Meet (varsity). Head coach Kyle Kissack has praised the girls’ leadership intangibles in the past, but he also said the results his team put forward this year go even deeper than leadership.

“We have a plan every season,” Kissack said. “This season was no exception. We have a well-rounded team and I think if you look at how successful we were at the end of April and the first couple weeks of May… It identifies the depth we have at the younger level and it’s exciting to think about what we can produce in the future.”

Over 50 percent of Rochelle’s lineup consisted of freshmen and sophomores, but you wouldn’t know it when you watch the girls perform. The Lady Hubs blew the field away at the fresh/soph level in the Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference Meet, scoring a resounding championship victory behind strong efforts from freshmen Gabby Harding and Cristina Alfano, who respectively took home conference title in the discus and the shot put.

The girls didn’t just excel in the field events, though. Freshman Macey Ryan won the conference title in the 100-meter dash while breaking a NIB-12 record set last year by teammate Jacie Wyatt, and three fresh/soph relays teams brought home victories. Sophomore Abby Tilton won both the 100-meter and the 300-meter hurdles, and sophomore Katherine Bakken led the distance group with a top-3 finish in the 3200-meter run.

“For as long as I’ve been a part of the program, we’ve struggled to put together a consistent, reliable weight crew,” Kissack said. “Our weight crew has some potential to be a real cornerstone for our program… We have some great sprinters and long sprinters as well as Katherine and her distance crew. We’re excited about what we’ve got coming up and you hope that success they’re able to have breeds interest and excitement amongst kids in middle school and the community.”

Rochelle’s varsity group may not have scored as many points as other teams at the conference and sectional level, but that may be a result of having a small roster once the underclassmen are removed from the discussion. While their numbers may be small, though, the varsity girls delivered throughout both the indoor and outdoor seasons, with two relay teams reaching the indoor state meet and three groups qualifying for the outdoor state meet.

The most notable varsity names including Wyatt and juniors Morgan Knight, Cesca Vardman and Morgan Baker, but Rochelle’s junior class extends beyond those competitors. Junior Allysa Harding has emerged as a leader of the throwing group, while juniors Alexis Crawford and Lexi Bialas are beginning to make their names in the high jump and the pole vault, respectively. Juniors Ashley Ackerman and Ashley Ramos have been mainstays in the open distance events as well.

“What’s really unique about the junior class is that they really, genuinely care about one another, and it extends past track and field,” Kissack said. “You hear the cliques used all the time that ‘we’re stronger together’ or ‘there’s no “I” in “team”’ but these girls have come together as friends and student-athletes and I think that’s probably the most important contribution to the success they’ve had over the past three years.”

The 2016-17 girls track and field season wrapped up at the IHSA Class 2A State Meet this past weekend, with the Lady Hubs (Wyatt, Knight, Vardman and Baker) taking third in the 1600-meter relay. Without a single senior on this year’s roster, every girl could return to action for Rochelle next year, and while some girls may have more specific goals than others, Kissack said he’ll be expecting the girls to pick up right where they left off this year.

“Every day has to be better than the day before, and so if you’re talking collectively about our group, we have to be better on the first day of practice next year than we were on the last day of practice this year,” Kissack said. “That’s going to take some commitment during the offseason… We start where we finish, and we’ve done a fantastic job of that over the course of the years.”