SYCAMORE — Lady Hubs track and field coach Kyle Kissack knows that the girls’ solid performance in the Sycamore Invitational this past Tuesday is only the beginning.
Rochelle scored the most combined points out of eight teams in the meet, with the varsity girls finishing second with 86 points and the junior varsity team taking first place with 109.
“It was a nice start to the season, but it’s not the most important thing going on right now,” Kissack said. “I think the kids we have are fantastic kids and they’re ultimate concern at this point is to get better every day… It was less about placing as a team and more about effort and competing in their specific events.”
Juniors Jacie Wyatt and Cesca Vardman led the Lady Hubs in both the 55-meter dash and the 200-meter dash, with Wyatt earning first in both events with a 55-meter time of 7.92 seconds and a 200-meter time of 28.29. Vardman finished third in the 55 with a time of 7.97 and second in the 200 with a time of 28.71.
Junior Morgan Knight recorded two top-3 finishes on Tuesday, taking third in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:09.72 and third in the triple jump with a leap of 29-2 ½. Junior Morgan Baker placed third in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:47.81 and seventh in the long jump at 14-1. It was a welcoming sight for Kissack to see his juniors competing so hard, especially with zero seniors on the roster this season.

“We’re really solid in the middle-distance races,” Kissack said. “A lot of our kids coming back to the team are middle-distance kids… The best teams are always athlete-led teams, and when you bring up the idea that we have no seniors you may be concerned about leadership. I have zero reservations about leadership in this program and our junior class is phenomenal.”

Freshman Britney Baez made her varsity track and field debut with a victory in the 3200-meter run with a time of 14:46.03, while sophomores Katherine Bakken and Anne Hickey finished first and second in the 1600-meter run for the junior varsity team, recording times of 6:41.15 and 6:50.93. Rochelle’s junior varsity 3200-meter relay team also took first place with a time of 12:44.53, led by Hickey and freshmen Emma Smith, Caitlin McMurray and Julissa Hernandez.

The 3200-meter varsity relay team placed third in 13:04.97, behind Bakken, sophomore Abby Wagner and juniors Ashley Ackerman and Ashley Ramos.
“It’s nice to see the numbers in our distance crew this year,” Kissack said. “I’m excited to see where they fit in, since there are a lot of new faces, and how successful they can be… We definitely have some young pieces to develop and we’re excited about the direction they can take us.”
Junior Allysa Harding and freshman Gabby Harding each performed well in the shot put, with Allysa landing in second place at the varsity level with a toss distance of 29-6 and Gabby recording the top mark at the junior varsity level at 28-1 ½. Sophomore Skylar Hubbard won the junior varsity pole vault event with a jump of 6-6, and more top junior varsity performers include sophomores Makenna Ferrari, Cheyenne Watson and freshman Katie Van Hise.

Ferrari won the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 11.05 and took third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 31.51, while Watson finished second in the 55-meter event at 11.34. The two girls teamed up with Van Hise, who won the 400-meter dash in 1:11.65, and junior Alexis Bialas to win the 640-meter relay in 1:40.92.
While Kissack was encouraged with how the Lady Hubs started the season, he said the girls will need to continue to push themselves in order to get stronger as the season wears on. With plenty of depth at his disposal, Kissack is eager to see where this team’s squad takes him.
“You never know what the kids are made of until they’re really tested with some adversity,” he said. “At this point everything looks great, but we have to stay healthy and they have to progress and compete, both in practice and in meets... I think if we can do that, we have a confident formula that we use, and when we get to the first week of May we’ll be having a conversatio about our significant strengths and hopefully our successes.”
The girls will hit the road this weekend for a team competition at Byron High School.