BYRON — Three members of the Rochelle Township High School varsity cross country team earned medals on Wednesday, when the runners competed in the annual Byron Invitational.

Junior Declan McGee and freshman Tyler Johnson received awards for the Hubs, while junior Annaliese Koziol brought home a medal for the Lady Hubs during the 2.87-mile race at the Byron Forest Preserve. The Hubs took third out of five teams with 62 points, while the Lady Hubs finished fourth with 101 points. Rochelle will travel for the Rock River Run on Saturday.

Johnson ran the fastest time for the Hubs, clocking in at 16:06 to finish second out of 62 runners in the varsity race. McGee took fifth with a time of 16:24 and sophomore Hunter Bivins landed in 20th with a time of 18:38. Juniors Levi Waddle and Elijah Mayen rounded out the top five scoring runners for the Hubs, placing 23rd and 24th with respective times of 18:52 and 18:54.

“It was a good meet for us,” head coach Dale Bergeson said. “I’m proud of how they ran together and how they raced the other teams. Declan is really pushing himself to run with the top runners and I’m glad that he has the confidence to do that. I’m always impressed with how Annaliese and Tyler race their opponents. Our times are dropping even though we’re still training hard. We haven’t tapered our practices and our athletes are still improving.”

Koziol finished in fourth out of 54 varsity girls with a time of 19:36. Junior Rose Luxton placed 27th with a time of 23:17, while senior Evileth Mendez, junior Mary Chadwick and sophomore Vivian Worthington took 30th, 31st and 32nd to round out the top five scoring runners.