Rochester girls basketball moving to Class 3A

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Rochester does not have a girls basketball coach as of right now, but they do know that they are moving up a class for the 2022-23 season.

Rochester will be in Class 3A for girls basketball, per the team sport classifications the IHSAA released Monday. The classifications cover the next two school years and were for fall and winter sports only.

The IHSAA will announce new sectional alignments on May 3. Softball and baseball classifications and sectional alignments will be announced in August.

Only Rochester’s girls basketball team will change classes. The volleyball and boys basketball teams will stay in Class 2A. The girls soccer team will stay in Class 1A, the boys soccer team will stay in Class 2A, and the football team will stay in Class 2A.

The Rochester girls basketball team has not played in Class 3A since the 2014-15 season, when the Tony Stesiak-coached Lady Zs won the regional title before falling to Tippecanoe Valley in the semistate.

They won sectional titles in 2016, 2020 and 2021 in Class 2A and now move back.

Rochester is in search of a girls basketball coach after Brian Jennings’ resignation on Feb. 22.

Rochester is the smallest school in Class 3A for girls basketball and the second largest for Class 2A for volleyball and boys basketball.

Rochester’s enrollment is 495 students. The smallest Class 3A school in volleyball and boys basketball have enrollments of 496.

Other schools in northern Indiana moving up to Class 3A in girls basketball include Bremen, Frankton, Rensselaer, Boone Grove and Fairfield.

South Bend Washington, who won the Class 3A girls title on Feb. 26, moves up to Class 4A based on the IHSAA Success Factor.

Boys basketball

Pioneer and North Miami are among those moving up to Class 2A for volleyball and boys basketball. North Daviess and Lafayette Central Catholic, who played each other in the Class 1A boys basketball state title game on March 26, are also moving up to Class 2A.

Rensselaer, who won the Class 2A boys basketball sectional in which Rochester competed, is moving up to Class 3A.

Volleyball

Rochester will not be in a volleyball sectional with Bremen, as the Lady Lions are moving up to Class 3A. Pioneer, who won the Class 1A state title in 2020, is moving up to Class 2A along with Three Rivers Conference rival North Miami. Traditional power Wapahani moves down to Class 2A after a one-year stint in Class 3A due to the IHSAA Success Factor.

Football

All eight schools in Sectional 34, including the Zebras, are staying in Class 2A. Schools moving up to Class 2A include Churubusco, Lake Station and Winamac. Benton Central moves down from Class 3A.

Girls soccer

All six teams in Rochester’s Class 1A sectional are staying in Class 1A. Boone Grove, who has won four sectionals since 2013, will move up to Class 2A.

Boys soccer

Argos and Rochester will not be in the same sectional as Argos will move back down to Class 1A. Fort Wayne Canterbury will continue to play in Class 2A after making it all the way to the regional final in their first year in the class. Fort Wayne Canterbury was elevated to Class 2A based on the Success Factor after the 2020-21 season.

Wabash and Illiana Christian are moving up to Class 2A based on enrollment. Illiana Christian won a regional title in their first ever state tournament in the fall of 2021.