STERLING — His team may be young, but Hubs track and field coach John Dobbs is pleased with how his boys kicked off the 2016-17 season at the Clinton Warump Meet in Sterling this past Wednesday.
While no official scores were kept between teams, the Hubs still ran, jumped and tossed as if it were a real competition. The boys have been practicing for roughly one month now, and Dobbs was encouraged with the team’s performance on Wednesday.
“I was really excited to see the guys compete,” Dobbs said. “I think we’re a better team this year than we were last year already… More than half of our team is freshmen and sophomores and they’re contributing already, and that’s going to be critical to our team success as we progress through the season.”
Freshman Traevon Voss made his presence known with a second-best finish in the long jump at 17-6, while fellow freshmen Jeremiah Navejas and Gyvanziel Quinonez earned the top marks in the 200-meter dash and the 400-meter dash, with Navejas recording a time of 25.59 seconds in the 200 and Quinonez running the 400 in 1:00.54.
But don’t let the young guys overshadow the team’s returning athletes. With 13 seniors on this year’s squad, Dobbs is looking forward to what his leaders will accomplish as the season moves forward.

“I’m hoping to have a balance across the board,” he said. “Those guys have real high hopes and they’ve been working their tails off. They’re our leaders and they should be able to take our team to where we envision going.”

“Our expectations don’t change much over the years,” he continued. “Lately we’ve been focusing on not only getting to the state meet, but getting to the finals.”
Senior Jake Rodriguez, who Dobbs said he expects to be a top contender in the 110-meter high hurdles this year, recorded the low times for Rochelle in both the 55-meter low hurdles (8.20) and the 55-meter high hurdles (8.89) on Wednesday. Seniors Matthew and Michael Drendel rose to the top in both the long jump and the high jump, with Michael leaping 19-0 in the long jump and Matthew clearing 5-6 in the high jump and completing the 800-meter run in a team-best 2:09.50.
Dobbs said he was also encouraged with his group of throwers, a group that includes senior Dylan Papke, who finished first in the shot put with a heave of 38-11. Junior Zach Miller and sophomore Greg Ricketts landed in a tie for second at 38-5, while senior Josh Norris launched the shot 38-3 for third-best on the team.
“We have five throwers within five inches of each other so it’s going to be very competitive within that group,” Dobbs said. “That’s something we’ve strived for is to have five or six throwers competing for the top two spots.”

The Hubs fielded two groups for the 800-meter relay and the 1600-meter relay on Wednesday. Seniors Kevin and Edwin Infante teamed up with Matthew and Michael Drendel for Rochelle’s best time of 1:43:45 in the 800-meter race, with Matthew Drendel and Edwin Infante collaborating with senior Levi Johnson and sophomore Austin Walsh for the 1600-meter event.
“Hopefully our relays will be strong again,” he said. “We’d like to get all four relay teams to the state meet this year. We think that if we focus on relays that the other events will kind of take care of themselves.”
Freshman Diego Escobar ran as the lone competitor for Rochelle in the 3200-meter run, finishing with a time of 12:14.83. Sophomore Jessee Infante took the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:09.00. The Hubs will face DeKalb and Belvidere at DeKalb High School this weekend.