The Rochelle Township High School varsity cross country team turned in its strongest performance of the season on Tuesday, when nearly all of the Hub and Lady Hub runners set new PRs during the Genoa-Kingston Matt Walter Invitational at Walcamp Park.
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KINGSTON — The Rochelle Township High School varsity cross country team turned in its strongest performance of the season on Tuesday, when nearly all of the Hub and Lady Hub runners set new PRs during the Genoa-Kingston Matt Walter Invitational at Walcamp Park.
The Hubs finished sixth out of 10 schools, while the Lady Hubs took seventh out of eight schools in the 3-mile race. Freshman Tyler Johnson and junior Declan McGee pushed each other throughout the event, with Johnson finishing 12th in 16:14.21 while McGee placed 13th in 16:15.09. Both runners earned medals for the Hubs, who had all of their varsity boys finish in under 20 minutes for the first time since Dale Bergeson began coaching cross country at RTHS.
“We had a great night last night,” Bergeson said. “Declan and Tyler pushed each other to career bests. They led the whole field at the mile and made other teams change their race plans. The boys responded to a really tough workout on Monday and they used that to get better.”
Sophomore Hunter Bivins took 36th out of 74 varsity boys with a time of 18:20.31, while juniors Levi Waddle and Elijah Mayen landed in 39th and 40th with respective times of 18:36.18 and 18:36.72 to round out the top five scoring runners for the Hubs. Junior Annaliese Koziol was the catalyst for the Lady Hubs, medaling in 11th out of 59 varsity girls with a time of 19:41.28.
“On the girls' side, they all PR’d as well,” Bergeson said. “Annaliese got a career best time in the 19s and Rose PR’d by more than a minute. Vivian had a great day getting into the low 23s and Mary broke the 24-minute barrier for the first time. Evi and Bridgett had huge PRs as well. I’m really proud of how well they responded and came out to race other athletes and not just to run.”
Junior Rose Luxton and sophomore Vivian Worthington took 32nd and 37th with respective times of 22:11.53 and 23:04.15. Junior Mary Chadwick and senior Evi Mendez rounded out the top five scoring runners, placing 44th and 51st with respective times of 23:50.00 and 24:28.84. Rochelle will return to action during the Freeport Invitational at Highland CC on Saturday.
