ROCHELLE — The Dale Bergeson era is officially underway at Rochelle Township High School, which held its first official practice of the 2024 boys and girls cross country season Monday afternoon. An RTHS alum who served as an assistant under former head coach Mark Zilis, Bergeson said he has high hopes for the returning Hub and Lady Hub runners this season.

Rochelle’s first meet is scheduled on Wednesday, Aug. 28 at Morris High School, where the Hubs and Lady Hubs will race in the Early Bird Invitational. On the boys side, Rochelle brings back multiple starters, but the Hubs will seek to replace their leading runner from 2023 in Luis Hernandez, who was a three-time IHSA sectional qualifier. On the girls side, Rochelle welcomes back a trio of key returners including juniors Annaliese Koziol, Rose Luxton and Mary Chadwick.

“It’s always a nice feeling to be back and see where the kids are at after their summer training,” Bergeson said. “We have some younger guys coming in and seeing our returning runners come back… I think we’ll have a good group of boys this year. We want to see Annaliese, Rose and Mary run as a pack and try to improve their times together. We want this to be the year where we qualify a girl for the state meet and I think that we’ll have a shot to accomplish that.”

Juniors Declan McGee and Elijah Mayen highlight the returning runners for the Hubs, who also welcome in a talented freshman in Tyler Johnson, a three-time Lutheran national qualifier. Rochelle’s 2024 schedule includes the Sycamore Invitational at Kishwaukee College on Sept. 3 as well as the First to the Finish Invitational at Detweiller Park in Peoria on Sept. 14. 

“We want to see our kids drop their times in every race we go through,” Bergeson said. “We want them to run as a pack more often and we want them to finish closer to one another. If we can do that, then our times will be faster and our splits will be faster as well. Our goal is for both teams to have a state qualifier and I think our boys have a chance to qualify for state.”

Additional competitions this fall include the annual Rochelle Invitational at Skare Park on Sept. 19 and the Interstate 8 Championships at Sycamore High School on Oct. 19. The Hubs are seeking a sectional berth for the first time since 2021 as well as their first trip to the state meet since 2000, while the Lady Hubs are aiming to return to sectionals for the first time since 2019.

“I think our goal for the girls is to find a couple more runners and see where we’re at,” Bergeson said. “We’ll need to see what we can do over our first few weeks of training and assess from there, but I’m confident that we can get a girl to state or close to state as an individual. Qualifying for sectionals as a team is definitely one of our goals for the girls this year.”