Friendship Binds Champion Sister Acts
By
Dennis Chase
Special for MHSAA.com
November 2, 2017
By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half
TRAVERSE CITY – Former college teammates Calvin Ackley and Rob McConnell used to joke that if their seven “little girls” ever took up cross country, and ran on the same team one day, that maybe, just maybe, they could win an MHSAA Finals championship.
The one team theory did not happen.
The championships? Well, that’s another story.
Rob and Tori McConnell’s four daughters have played prominent roles in Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart’s recent dominance in Division 4. The top-ranked Irish are favorites to three-peat Saturday at the Lower Peninsula Finals at Michigan International Speedway.
Meanwhile, Calvin and Amy Ackley’s daughter, Adelyn, will be seeking to defend her Division 3 individual championship. Top-ranked Hart, led by three Ackley sisters, will attempt to win the school’s first MHSAA team championship in any sport.
So, in the end, it wasn’t one school that benefitted. It was two.
“The next best thing,” said Calvin Ackley.
Ackley and McConnell go back 25 years, They were the top two runners on the Cornerstone University cross country team in 1992-93. The two friends eventually went their separate ways, but then reconnected a few years later after they had married and started having children – girls, lots of girls.
The families started getting together a couple times a year.
“We like to visit during the summer,” said Bailley McConnell, a senior at Sacred Heart. “We’re all good friends. They’re like family.”
The girls like to be active when they’re together – going out for runs, playing on the sand dunes near Silver Lake, swimming, jumping around on a trampoline, and 4-wheeling.
“We’re pretty energetic when we’re together,” said Alayna Ackley, a senior at Hart. “We have a lot of fun.”
They’re having a lot of fun this fall, too.
And not just on the trails. The girls like to peruse athletic.net, a website filled with running results, to keep track of each other.
“We’re always looking to see how they’re doing and comparing it to how we’re doing,” said Bailley.
A little friendly competition of sorts.
“It’s like, ‘OK, the McConnells are doing this. We need to step it up,’” said Calvin.
Hart and Sacred Heart both have failed to finish first just once this season – in September’s all-division Spartan Elite race at Michigan State. Hart finished second, eight points behind Rockford, the state’s No. 1 team in Division 1.
The Ackley sisters own three of the top six times statewide in Division 3 – Adelyn, a junior, is first (16:54.5), Alayna fifth (18:22.8) and Savannah, a freshman, sixth (18:31.6). Lynae Ackley, a freshman and first cousin, is 10th (18:41).
Sacred Heart has three of the top nine times in Division 4 – Bailley is third (18:30.1), Scout Nelson, a junior, fourth (18:37.4) and Desiree McConnell, a sophomore, ninth (19:10.5).
A year ago, all four McConnell sisters placed in the top 18 at the Finals. Alexis, who was third overall in Division 4, graduated and is now at Cornerstone (she was the Eagles’ No. 1 runner at their last NAIA meet). Cammie, who was fourth at MIS in 2016, broke her femur in August when she fell during a night run. The junior has missed the entire season.
“If they had Cammie, they could be as good as any team in the state,” said Calvin.
Still, the Irish’s depth has helped offset the losses. Sacred Heart posted a perfect score of 15 in winning last Friday’s Regional. Nelson, Bailley and Desiree McConnell, Lauren McDonald and Rowan Fitzpatrick went 1-5. Sara Peltier took seventh.
“It’s super exciting to be able to do what we’ve done,” said Bailley, who was second overall at last year’s Division 4 meet. “We have a motivated team.”
Hart claimed its Regional by placing five runners in the top 11. Adelyn finished first, Alayna third, Savannah fifth, Lynae 10th and Brenna Aerts 11th.
“We’re trying to stay humble and be confident in our abilities,” said Alayna. “We’re not letting (the No. 1 ranking) get to our heads.”
It’s been quite a ride for Rob McConnell and Calvin Ackley. They both got back into a more serious running mode when their children developed an interest in the sport.
“I didn’t want to send the girls out (on runs) by themselves, especially when they were younger, so I would follow in the car,” said Calvin, 46. “Then, I thought, I might as well get back in shape. In the last five years, I’ve enjoyed running more than I ever did when I was younger. When you get older, you enjoy a different perspective on it. And it’s been a great bonding experience with my daughters.”
Amy Ackley, also a runner at Cornerstone, continues to run as well, marathons included.
Calvin Ackley said the couple “did not push” their daughters into running – they also have three younger sons – but they wanted a healthy lifestyle for their children. So they set an example.
“Our girls don’t train by running mega miles,” said Calvin, a teacher/coach at the middle school. “They run maybe 30 to 40 miles (a week). The key in running is consistency, training in those (winter) months that everyone likes to forget about. That makes a big difference.”
Rob McConnell runs anywhere from 70 to 100 miles a week. He and Tori, who ran at Alma College, enjoyed running in local races when their girls were young. The girls tagged along and soon wanted to be part of it.
“They wanted to do the fun runs, then the 5Ks,” said Rob. “Eventually they ran some half marathons.”
Rob and Tori like running long distances as well. In fact, they ran the Boston Marathon in 2013 – the year of the bombing.
Rob, 43, has won the masters division in the Fifth Third River Bank 25K the last two years, and he ran a 2:42:15 in the 2016 Detroit Free Press Marathon.
“I was able to stay ahead of him in college,” said Calvin, “but I wouldn’t have a chance now. He’s a training machine. I don’t know how he keeps it up. His work ethic is second to none. He’s running phenomenal times.”
McConnell, who has his own construction company, runs with the Sacred Heart team during practice.
“On the weekends,” said Bailley, “Mom joins in.”
Rob, like Calvin, enjoys the bonding experience.
“That’s probably what got us, especially me, back into racing,” he said. “Relationship-wise, it was one of the best things we ever did – doing something with our daughters and having fun at the same time.”
There was a stretch when the girls were running in middle school, Bailley admitted, that they went through a phase and grew tired of training.
“We were like, ‘We don’t want to run. We don’t want to do this,’” she said.
But the girls, with a little coaxing, stuck with it and were rewarded.
“We realized where (training) got us,” said Bailley. “Whatever you put in, you get out.”
Sacred Heart has set the Division 4 championship meet record for the lowest score the last two years. In fact, last year’s score of 34 was the lowest since the MHSAA Finals went to divisions.
Hart has a shot at setting the Division 3 mark this season. No matter what the score, though, the Pirates would just like to end the drought.
“I want to see a green sign by the highway that says, ‘Welcome to Hart, home of the state champions,’” said Calvin, a Hart graduate. “That’s been my mantra for five years. I keep telling the middle school boys and girls that they can do this.”
The Hart boys are ranked No. 3 in the coaches poll.
“Our coach (Terry Tatro) has always said cross country would be the first sport to bring home a state title,” said Alayna. “I’ve always wanted to get that for him. I’ve been running for my coach for six years (since middle school). I want to make it happen for him, our school and for each other.”
Calvin Ackley has a vested interest in both the girls and boys teams. His nephews, Alex Enns and Andrew Whitney, were Hart’s top two finishers in Saturday’s boys Regional triumph, and Abram Enns (Alex’s brother) finished as the fourth counter on his team.
And, by the way, remember that joke a few years back about the seven girls running on the same team and winning a championship?
Well, that chapter is still not closed. Bailley is “leaning” toward joining her sister Alexis at Cornerstone next year. Alayna Ackley has Cornerstone on her short list.
Who knows what will happen?
“I joke now with Calvin that maybe we can get our daughters to go to Cornerstone and win an NAIA national championship,” said Rob. “That would be a great story in itself.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Sacred Heart’s McConnell sisters and Hart’s Ackley sisters celebrate their successes during last season’s MHSAA Finals at Michigan International Speedway; from left: Desiree McConnell, Bailley McConnell, Adelyn Ackley, Alayna Ackley, Alexis McConnell and Cammie McConnell. (Middle) There were only five sisters between the two families before Savannah and Desiree were born; from left: Alayna Ackley, holding Cammie McConnell, Bailey McConnell in the middle and Alexis McConnell holding Adelyn Ackley. (Below) From left, Desiree, Cammie, Alexis and Bailey McConnell in front and Alayna and Adelyn Ackley behind them at a middle school MEGASTAR meet in 2015. (Photos courtesy of the Ackley family.)
Anderson Shows Way for Fenton Runners
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
October 10, 2018
The runners on the Fenton girls and boys cross country teams admired and respected coach Jesse Anderson before he placed 20th overall at the 2018 Boston Marathon.
But that performance definitely didn’t hurt his credibility.
“Like everyone else on the team, I was shocked and very proud when I heard the news,” Fenton senior Nolan Day said. “It’s so crazy to think that our coach that we see every day took 20th out of 30,000 in one of America’s most prestigious marathon races. We all feel very lucky to have him as a coach as it is, and this just adds to it.”
Anderson, who finished the marathon in 2 hours, 29 minutes and 19 seconds, is in his fourth year as coach at his alma mater. The 2008 graduate was a two-time all-state finisher and four-time MHSAA Finals qualifier for the Tigers. While he didn’t run competitively while attending University of Michigan, he wound up picking the sport back up on his own and competed in road races before making the jump to marathons in 2013.
“The (Fenton) position came open in 2015, and I was encouraged to apply for the spot because I was running a business in town and I had picked up competitive running at the time after college,” Anderson said. “I cared a lot about the program and wanted to have an impact at that level. It has surpassed my expectations.”
In his first three seasons, the Fenton boys have qualified twice for the Division 1 Finals (2015 and 2017), and the girls qualified in 2017. Both teams are projected to finish first in their regions by Athletic.net, although the boys hypothetical Regional meet sees the Tigers tying Highland Milford for first and just one point ahead of Walled Lake Central. On the girls side, junior Alexa Keiser – who earned all-state finishes in both of her first two seasons at Fenton – has a top time this fall that once again would put her on stage at Michigan International Speedway on Nov. 3.
Anderson gives a lot of the credit for the team’s success to his assistant coaches, Sue Larsen and Nathan Loersch.
“I couldn’t do what I do without those two,” he said.
He also said that both his experience as a high school runner and as a currently competitive runner are what he’s needed to be a complete coach.
“They kind of go hand in hand,” he said. “When I’m talking to the kids and communicating a workout, my experience as a runner in high school is more valuable, especially when it comes to racing tactics,” he said. “But training to be consistent over road races has really taught me about making consistent habits. I wouldn’t feel as complete as a coach without one or the other experience.”
While Anderson acknowledges training for marathons is different than training for 5Ks, he also points out that there are plenty of similarities, which his experiences make him uniquely qualified to see.
The mileage an athlete is running per week may be different, but he said the rhythm of that week – when to rest, what to work out – is very much the same. And, of course, he has a willing participant to test the effectiveness of his workouts – himself. That helps him communicate why his high school athletes are running what they’re running, and what it will do for them, something Anderson feels very strongly about.
His athletes appreciate all of the experience he brings to the table.
“As a person and a coach, we think very highly of him, and his decorated running resume backs his already trustworthy judgment and advice,” Day said. “Just when I think that I couldn’t have any more respect for him as a person and as a coach, his achievements keep on grabbing even more of my respect.
“When it comes to relating to his runners and understanding what they are going through, Coach Anderson’s skills are unparalleled. He knows the stretches and fixes for every injury, and knows how to push his runners to their highest potential while not being detrimental. For these reasons, among many others, I truly feel Coach Jesse Anderson is the best cross country coach in the state of Michigan.”
Of course, not all of Anderson’s lessons are taught from his successes. In 2013, he attempted for the first time to run the Boston Marathon and had to drop out. It’s the only race, Anderson said, he’s hasn’t finished.
“I didn’t prepare very well,” he said. “I was in the midst of starting up a business in town, and I had kept myself busy that weekend and drove out the day before. I didn’t drink enough water. I drank too much coffee. I made a lot of mistakes, and I use it as an example now for coaching.”
The 2013 race also served as a personal learning experience as Anderson prepared for the 2018 marathon, helping him to his biggest triumph at the site of what was previously his rare racing failure.
It was made more special by the group of Fenton runners he has been mentoring seeing that success.
“They’ve always been super supportive, and it was really heartwarming to have a bunch of people reach out to me,” he said. “I really try not to make too much out of it because a lot of circumstances went into being able to place that high, but I would like to think I was just trying to practice what I preach to the kids. This wasn’t the result of some Herculean effort. That said, it was pretty cool, and Boston is pretty recognizable to most people, so it was really cool to see the kids get excited about it.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Fenton coach Jesse Anderson is surrounded by his runners during their preseason camp at Sleeping Bear Dunes. (Middle) Anderson crosses the finish line 10th at the Aug. 25 Crim 10-mile run in Flint. (Top photo courtesy of Fenton cross country, middle by RunMichigan.com.)