ROCHELLE — COVID-19 presented several challenges for the Rochelle Lady Hub track and field team this past season, most notably a small roster that prevented head coach Alison Vrana from filling some events at the varsity level. With activities returning to normal and the 2021-22 season underway, Rochelle has already more than doubled its roster size from last season.

The Lady Hubs will also have the opportunity to compete indoors once again, with the Sycamore Invitational scheduled for Tuesday, March 8. Rochelle will look to build on its achievements from this past season, which included a sixth-place finish at the Interstate 8 Conference Championship meet and a seventh-place finish in the IHSA 2A Plano Sectional.

“It’s really nice to have a normal year with normal numbers,” Vrana said. “We have around 30 girls on the team and I think we did a really good job of recruiting athletes to come out. We have a lot of new freshmen and even though we have some returning athletes back this season, I feel like we’re starting fresh. I’m looking forward to having a deeper team and filling a full lineup.”

Rochelle will have a core group of seniors returning this spring including state-qualifying high jumper Teagan Meyers, who will also lead the Lady Hubs in the sprints and sprint relays. Senior Liberty Hayes and sophomore Alivia Henkel return as leading sprinters, while senior Sara Johnson and junior Yuelma Ortiz are expected to lead Rochelle in the distance events.

“I’m looking for our team to be strong in the 200-meter, 400-meter and some 800-meter events,” Vrana said. “I think we’ll have some strong relay teams and some strong individual events that we weren’t able to do last season because we didn’t have the numbers. We’ve lost some good throwers over the last few years but we have some young kids who are really promising.”

After not having an indoor meet this past season, Rochelle will compete in several this spring including the Byron Indoor Preview on Saturday, March 12. The Lady Hubs will also return to a full outdoor schedule that features the annual Ogle County Invitational. Vrana said the team’s biggest goals for the season will be returning to the basics and maintaining the roster.

“We had only 13 girls who were active members of the track team last season,” Vrana said. “I want to continue building the program I was building before COVID-19 happened and I want to continue building our culture so girls are coming back every season. I’m looking forward to seeing the girls competing again and I’m excited that we’ll have an indoor season. I think the indoor season allows me to figure out what our girls are good at and we’re able to experiment with different lineups so we have a much better idea of what we can do before we get outside.”