Rochelle sophomore Macey Ryan almost always receives an important text message before each of her track and field meets with the Lady Hubs varsity team.

The messages come from Macey’s older brother Tyler, who will give his younger sister words of encouragement while reminding her to start each race strong and push all the way to the finish line. Tyler has been one of Macey’s biggest role models in track and field, and given Tyler’s past successes with the Hubs varsity team during his senior year, it’s no surprise Macey has found so much early success with the Lady Hubs.

“He’ll text be before every meet telling me to make sure I get out of my blocks fast,” Ryan said. “He’s always texting me and supporting me.”

Ryan began her track and field career in middle school, and during the summertime she played competitive softball. But when Ryan arrived at Rochelle Township High School in 2016 to begin her freshman year, she had a difficult choice to make. Since both softball and girls track are held during the spring, Ryan needed to choose one sport or the other.

But the speedy sophomore picked her track spikes over her softball cleats, and after helping the Lady Hubs qualify for both indoor and outdoor state meets in the relays last season, it’s safe to say Ryan made the correct choice.

“I always wanted to be going,” Ryan said. “My whole family did track and field in middle school so I decided to go for it… I was considering playing softball last year because I’ve played since I was little, but my teammates convinced me to do track. I’m happy I stuck with track because I’ve been very successful with it.”

Ryan’s first indoor track and field season with the Lady Hubs culminated in a qualification for the 2017 Illinois Top Times Indoor State Championships. Alongside teammates Cesca Vardman, Morgan Baker and Jacie Wyatt, Ryan helped the girls set a new school record for the indoor 800-meter relay with a time of 1:49.98 at the 2017 Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference Meet.

But an unfortunate illness forced Ryan to miss last year’s indoor state championships. However, the sophomore will finally get her first crack at the state meet after beating Rochelle’s indoor 800-meter relay record again at this year’s conference meet. Ryan, Vardman, Baker and Wyatt ran a 1:49.55 to qualify, and the girls will compete this weekend.

“I didn’t think I would do this well,” Ryan said. “The support from all of my teammates gets me going… They’re all very positive about everything, and they don’t get down on themselves when they don’t do well because they know they can do better. I’ve started to be that way too.”

Ryan sprints for the Lady Hubs during both the indoor and outdoor seasons. She competed in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash events last year as well as the 400-meter and 800-meter relays. During the 2017 Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference Championships, in which Rochelle’s fresh-soph team took first place, Ryan broke Wyatt’s conference record in the 100-meter dash, clocking in at 13.10 seconds.

“When I broke Jacie’s record she wasn’t mad about it,” Ryan said. “She was happy for me… I want to beat my record from last year, and I want to beat all of my times from last year.”

Despite being in limbo before ultimately joining the track and field team last season, Ryan said she’s optimistic about continuing to run for the Lady Hubs beyond this season. Her goals are to continue excelling in both the open sprints and the relays, and she said her ultimate goal is to reach state in an individual sprint.

“We’re all very supportive of each other,” Ryan said. “I like the opens more but I do love relays… We want to go to state again this year for our relays and we want to win conference… I want to go to either indoor state or outdoor state for me.”