It feels amazing. I was really excited and I had a lot of friends run up to me to congratulate me after setting the record.”

Andrew Nuyen

ROCHELLE — Spectators slowly clapped their hands as Rochelle sophomore Andrew Nuyen attempted to make history during the 50th Annual Ogle County Invitational on Tuesday evening.

Already an indoor state champion in the pole vault from earlier this season, Nuyen found himself inches away from breaking Rochelle’s 41-year-old school record of 15 feet set by John Place in 1983. Having cleared 14 feet 9 inches during Tuesday’s meet, which broke the previous meet record set by Oregon’s Jake Mennen in 2019, Nuyen set his sights on the school record.

Nuyen failed on his first two attempts at the record height, but with his third and final attempt still remaining, the sophomore stood on the runway, raising his hands as onlookers began to clap their hands in support. With a burst of speed, Nuyen started his third attempt, planting his pole into the ground and soaring high into the sky, maneuvering his body over the bar with just a few inches to spare and landing on the opposite side as Rochelle’s new school record holder.

“It feels amazing,” Nuyen said. “I was really excited and I had a lot of friends run up to me to congratulate me after setting the record. I used the energy from my friends and that helped me get over the bar. I just told myself that I needed to get up. I think I’m peaking at the right time. I knew I had the height, but I wasn’t able to put it together until today. My goal is to keep going.”

Nuyen’s record-setting performance won him first place in the pole vault and helped the Rochelle Hub varsity track and field team finish second out of five schools in Tuesday’s meet, which featured boys and girls from Oregon, Byron, Stillman Valley and Forreston. The Rochelle Lady Hub varsity track and field team also took second in the meet, scoring 96 points. Both teams honored their senior student-athletes in a brief ceremony near the start of the meet.

Hubs

Rochelle won four of the field events on Tuesday. Senior Landon Mickley took first in the shot put with a mark of 14.06 meters and the discus throw with a mark of 39.63 meters. Senior Nathan Sergeant won the triple jump with a distance of 12.59 meters and finished second in the long jump with a mark of 5.69 meters. Nuyen won the pole vault with a height of 1.60 meters.

Rochelle finished first in the 3200-meter relay (Irving Escalante, Pedro Rosales, Elijah Mayen and Caleb Wyssbrod) with a time of 8:50.20 and second in the 400-meter relay (Caden Goodwin, Reece Harris, Aaron DeClerck and Andrew Nuyen) with a time of 45.03 seconds. The Hubs placed third in the 800-meter relay (Caden Goodwin, Reece Harris, Virgil O’Dell and Caleb Wyssbrod) with a finishing time of 1:34.98 as well as the 1600-meter relay (Irving Escalante, Pedro Rosales, Jackson Smith and Caleb Wyssbrod) with a finishing time of 3:38.72.

Sophomore Wyatt Worthington finished fourth in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 45.43 seconds and fifth in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 18.40 seconds. Senior Luis Hernandez won both the 3200-meter run with a time of 11:08.33 and the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:04.95. Sophomore Reece Harris took third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.01 seconds and fifth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.33 seconds to lead Rochelle in the sprints. 

Sophomore Elijah Mayen took second in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:17.57 and senior Irving Escalante finished fifth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 55.42 seconds.

Lady Hubs

Freshman Elyse Manning scored Rochelle’s lone win in the field events, claiming the triple jump with a distance of 9.48 meters. Senior Kyra Bivins took second in the discus throw with a mark of 33.18 meters and junior Erin Murphy took second in the shot put with a mark of 9.75 meters. Sophomore Kyrie Cragin finished third in the pole vault with a clearance of 1.75 meters and junior Dempsey Atkinson placed fifth in the high jump with a clearance of 1.40 meters.

Sophomore Rose Luxton won two events, claiming the 800-meter run with a time of 2:47.65 and the 1600-meter run with a time of 6:07.39. Sophomore Annaliese Koziol won the 3200-meter run with a time of 14:08.26 and sophomore Kyrie Cragin finished second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:04.95. Freshman Elyse Manning took third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 29.09 seconds and fourth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 14.37 seconds.

Rochelle won the 3200-meter relay (Rose Luxton, Mary Chadwick, Brisa Zepeda and Kylie Smith) with a time of 11:22.27). The Lady Hubs finished third in the 400-meter relay (Elyse Manning, Zoe White, Valerie Saldana and Ryelee Bogle) with a time of 54.61 seconds and the 1600-meter relay (Kyrie Cragin, Arline Villanueva, Jasmine Walsh and Kylie Smith) with a time of 4:31.19. Rochelle took fifth in the 800-meter relay (Katie Toczylowski, Zoe White, Alex Neece and Reese Kissack) with a time of 1:59.37.

Senior Night

The Hub seniors honored on Tuesday evening  include Abel Huerta, Alexavier Villatoro, Bruno Fernandez, Caleb Wyssbrod, Diego Salazar, Irving Escalante, Isaac Lopez, Landon Mickley, Luis Hernandez, Nathan Sergeant, Noe Valdez, Storm Devers and Wyatt Brandt along with managers Anna Toczylowski and Franshelly Salas-Duran. The Lady Hub seniors include Kennedy Adamski, Kylie Smith, Kyra Bivins, Karma Lidren and Jaclyn Seyller.