Ackley, St. Francis Hold off Charging Cougars

November 5, 2016

Second Half reports

BROOKLYN – The finish line couldn’t arrive soon enough for Hart sophomore Adelyn Ackley.

There was no one in front of her at Michigan International Speedway as she sprinted down the final stretch Saturday in the MHSAA Division 3 cross country meet.

It’s what was behind her that had Ackley running scared.

Hot on her heels was Lansing Catholic junior Olivia Theis, the only Division 3 runner to beat her this season.

“It was a terrible feeling,” Ackley said. “I thought she was right there. At first, I thought the finish line was closer, so I dug. Then I realized it’s a lot farther.”

Ackley was able to hold off Theis, winning with a time of 17:40.6. Theis was a close second in 17:41.3, as the top two runners cleared the rest of the field by 42.9 seconds.

“I was getting there,” Theis said. “I just couldn’t pick it up any more. I was ahead, then she pulled ahead and I couldn’t catch her.”

Ackley and Theis raced head-to-head in the two biggest regular-season invitationals of the season. Ackley was third behind two Division 1 top-seven finishers in the Spartan Elite Race at Michigan State, with Theis taking fourth. In the Portage Invitational, Theis was first in 17:21, with Ackley taking second by 12 seconds.

Ackley was a distant second at last year’s Final to Traverse City St. Francis’ Holly Bullough, who now runs for Michigan State University.

Ackley went through the mile in 5:46, backing off about 700 meters into the race after a blistering start.

“I had a really fast start,” she said. “Then I realized I was going like a 4:41 pace for a mile, so I slowed down and followed Olivia.”

Ackley ran negative splits, running the second mile in 5:41 and the third in 5:39. Theis also ran a well-paced race, going 5:47, 5:40 and 5:42 for the first three miles.

Despite Theis’ performance, Lansing Catholic couldn’t keep St. Francis from repeating as Division 3 team champion.

St. Francis, which lost only two runners from its top seven of 2015, put five runners in the top 24 in the team race. Junior Joyana Tarsa was seventh in 19:13.6, sophomore Katelyn Duffing ninth in 19:23.1, senior Emmalyne Tarsa 14th in 19:37.2, freshman Libby Gorman 23rd in 20:13.5 and sophomore Christine Scerbak 24th in 20:18.0.

Lansing Catholic put three runners in the top five in the team race, but had to count 31st and 47th places. Olivia Theis was second among team runners, Lauren Cleary was third and Jaden Theis was fifth.

Benzie Central was third with 125 points.

Click for full results.

The MHSAA Cross Country Finals are sponsored by the Michigan National Guard.

PHOTOS: (Top) Hart’s Adelyn Ackley (right) charges toward the finish in Division 3 just ahead of Lansing Catholic’s Olivia Theis. (Middle) St. Francis’ Joyana Tarsa (1680) leads a pack including Benzie Central’s Lucy Karpukhno (1526). (Click to see more from RunMichigan.com.)

Central Montcalm's Hoffman Pulls Away, Lansing Catholic Claims Close Race

November 2, 2024

BROOKLYN — Kyah Hoffman was winning cross country races for the first four weeks of the season, but wasn’t satisfied with her performances.

As much as coaches stress that it’s place, not time, that matters in cross country, kids are still motivated by lowering their personal records.

Through six meets, Hoffman won five times — taking sixth in the Spartan Elite race against mostly Division 1 runners — but her times were nowhere near where she finished her junior year at Central Montcalm.

Her breakthrough moment came Sept. 28 in Shepherd where she took third against another loaded field in 17 minutes, 40.4 seconds, shaving 0.4 seconds off her fastest time from last season.

Hoffman’s confidence was restored.

She would break 18 minutes four more times this season, the last being a 17:31.6 performance which was good for first place in the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 Final on Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.

Hoffman won 11 of 13 races this season, her fastest time being 17:25.3 on Oct. 19 in the Northern Michigan Meet of Champions.

“It’s been ups and downs,” Hoffman said. “At first, I was super scared because I was like, ‘I haven’t PR’d. I’ve barely reached the 17s. I don’t know if I’m going to PR this year.’ I was so nervous until I ran at Shepherd and broke my record by .4, which is better than nothing, for sure.

“At Cadillac, I bumped that all the way down to 17:25. I was like, ‘Oh, wow, I am improving. It’s not just a fluke. I’m doing well.’ I knew I could do it. I just had to tell myself I could do it and it was going to happen.”

Hoffman made it happen by putting in a surge in the second mile after her and Emmry Ross of Onsted reached the mile mark in 5:38.8. At the two-mile mark, Hoffman’s lead increased to 9.1 seconds over Ross.

From there, it was just a matter of holding it together over the final 1.1 miles. Hoffman wouldn’t let herself feel comfortable, even if spectators near the finish could see she had a large lead.

“To be honest, I thought there was someone behind me the whole time,” said Hoffman, a four-time all-stater who was third in Division 3 last year. “I was like, ‘I didn’t go this far just to get second.’ I wanted it really badly, so after I passed her at the mile I had to get a gap.

Lansing Catholic holds up its team title trophy. “I can always hear someone being like, ‘Woo, woo! Go so-and-so!’ But they could be a couple ways away from me or they could be screaming early because they see them coming. It’s just a mystery. Somebody at the very end said, ‘You have 60 meters.’ I knew I’ve got this. I might as well just keep dying.”

The team race was about as close as it gets, with four teams in the hunt heading into the final mile.

Only 23 points separated the top four, with Lansing Catholic emerging from the fray with its second Finals championship by a 136-147 margin over Pewamo-Westphalia. The Cougars were Division 2 champions in 2017.

Central Montcalm was third with 157 points, and Traverse City St. Francis was fourth with 159.

Lansing Catholic became champion after a seventh-place finish last year, despite graduating sixth-place individual Tessa Roe. The Cougars returned four runners from that team and benefited from an infusion of three freshmen who made the varsity lineup.

One of those ninth-graders, Josie Bishop, led the Cougars by placing 20th in 19:01.8. She was the team’s only all-state finisher, but Lansing Catholic got its five scoring runners across the line among the first 38 places in the team race and first 60 overall.

Sophomore Grace Wonch was 32nd in 19:21.0, missing all-state by two places. Junior Frances Melinn was 42nd in 19:43.6, freshman Isabelle Currie 58th in 20:05.3 and sophomore Avery Miller 60th in 20:10.5.

Pewamo-Westphalia had an 11th-place finisher in senior Whitney Werner (18:17.3) and 14th-place finisher in sophomore Alyssa Kramer (18:39.3), but Lansing Catholic had five runners across before the Pirates had four.

Click for full results.

PHOTOS (Top) Central Montcalm’s Kyah Hoffman finishes her Division 3 championship run Saturday at Michigan International Speedway. (Middle) Lansing Catholic holds up its team title trophy. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com; top photo by Dave McCauley and team photo by Carter Sherline.)