STERLING — Junior Annaliese Koziol and freshman Tyler Johnson continued to lead the Rochelle Township High School varsity cross country on the trails Saturday afternoon, when the Hub and Lady Hub harriers laced up for the annual Sterling Invitational at Hoover Park.

Johnson finished ninth out of 79 varsity boys, clocking in with a time of 16:55.10 to earn medalist honors for the Hubs. Junior Declan McGee took 39th with a time of 17:57.10, while juniors Levi Waddle and Johnny Morales finished 56th and 66th with respective times of  20:02.50 and 21:04.20. Rochelle took ninth out of 11 schools as a team on Saturday. 

“I’m really happy with how the team has been improving and racing,” head coach Dale Bergeson said. “Declan ran a gutsy first mile. I was impressed by his commitment to the team. We were missing two of our top five runners today, but the other runners ran well. Tyler’s adjusted 3-mile time would have been about 16:05, which is a great race for him.”

Koziol finished 12th out of 81 varsity girls with a time of 20:25.00 to earn medalist honors and lead the Lady Hubs to 11th as a team. Sophomore Vivian Worthigton and junior Rose Luxton took 57th and 58th with respective times of 24:17.30 and 24:21.60. Seniors Evi Mendez and Bridgett Ramirez rounded out the top five scoring runners with 66th and 70th-place finishes. Rochelle will race in the Interstate 8 Conference meet at Sycamore on Saturday, Oct. 19.

“Bridgett was almost three minutes faster than her race here two weeks ago,” Bergeson said. “We are right where we need to be this time of the year.”