Hart, Ackley Complete Another Title Charge
November 3, 2018
Second Half reports
BROOKLYN — Shepherd’s Amber Gall set the bar for Hart’s Adelyn Ackley back in middle school.
It was the desire to beat Gall, whose times caught her attention, that drove Ackley to start training seriously back then.
“I raced her in eighth grade once at the MEGASTAR meet,” Ackley said. “When we were both in eighth grade, we raced the 3,200. My dad and I trained over the winter so we could race her, because we saw her time and she was really good. That’s how I got into running, too. She got me into running.”
Ackley and Gall put on a show that day as eighth-graders in the 2015 Mid Michigan MEGASTAR Meet at Shepherd, running times that would’ve been phenomenal for most high school athletes. Ackley edged Gall by half a second with a time of 11:02.37.
They’ve continued to race in close proximity to one another through high school. In their final cross country meets in their school uniforms, Ackley held off a strong challenge from Gall to win her third MHSAA Division 3 individual championship in 17:42.8 on Saturday at Michigan International Speedway. Gall was second in 17:53.6. The rest of the field was 47 seconds back.
“Amber Gall was right on my tail right up until the two-and-a-quarter-mile mark,” Ackley said. “I slowly pulled away once we got on the track. I was hoping to make a move after the mile or after the mile-and-a-half. I tried to make a move there. I did, and she hung on. I made another move once we got on the track, and I broke her there.”
Gall has finished second to Ackley the last two years, though her time Saturday brought her considerably closer than in 2017, when the gap was 26.8 seconds. In 2016, Ackley was first and Gall took fifth. In 2015, Ackley was second and Gall was third.
With two Ackley sisters and a cousin in its top four, Hart repeated as team champion with 43 points, beating Grandville Calvin Christian by 100. Hart had its five scoring runners across the line before Calvin Christian’s top runner finished.
Sophomore Savannah Ackley was seventh in 19:15.1, freshman Audrianna Enns was 10th in 19:26.8, sophomore Lynae Ackley was 13th in 19:31.8 and sophomore MacKenzie Stitt was 14th in 19:34.2 for Hart.
PHOTOS: (Top) Hart’s Adelyn Ackley stays a few paces ahead of Shepherd’s Amber Gall during Saturday’s Division 3 Final. (Middle) Hart’s Savannah Ackley approaches the finish line on the way to placing seventh. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)
Buckley's Harrand, Johannesburg-Lewiston Complete 1st-Time Champions Sweep
November 5, 2022
BROOKLYN – People in Aiden Harrand’s support system saw potential in her before she saw it in herself.
She was having a strong start to her freshman year at Buckley two years ago, but Harrand had no idea how good she could become.
Other people around her could see the greatness within her, however.
“My freshman year, I had all the people around me kind of saying, ‘You could win the state meet your freshman year,’” Harrand said. “I didn’t really believe it. Well, I started looking at the rankings and stuff, and I really could. But I had a rough morning that year. It didn’t turn out like I wanted. It lit something inside me like, ‘I want to get this done. I want this to be my main goal.’”
It took two years, but Harrand has fulfilled the promise that her coaches and teammates forecasted for her. She won the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 championship Saturday with a time of 19:05.89 on a wind-swept Michigan International Speedway course.
Harrand was a contender her first two years, placing fifth as a freshman and second last year.
This year, everything came together.
“Both years, I was ranked 1 and 2 for both of them,” she said. “I didn’t quite get there. This year, I was able to do it.”
Getting her training plan and nutrition dialed in helped Harrand achieve her goal. So did showing up at MIS as the member of a qualifying team after racing her first two years as an individual qualifier.
“Mentally, it feels a lot better having a team, because you’re not only running for yourself, but you’re running for the people with you,” she said. “It just feels better.”
Harrand won 11 of her 12 races this year, finishing second at the Sparta Invitational to Kent City sophomore Lila Volkers, who was fifth in the Division 3 race.
Harrand won her Regional meet with a season-best time of 18:11, but MIS wasn’t going to yield personal records Saturday.
“I wish it went a little faster, but because of the wind and the weather, it was kind of hard to push through it,” she said. “It’s always crazy here.”
Johannesburg-Lewiston won its first team championship, scoring 118 points to beat last year’s program-best sixth-place finish. Hillsdale Academy was second with 151 and Whitmore Lake was third with 192.
Sophomore Allie Nowak was third in 19:20.80, freshman Yolanda Gascho was seventh in 20:04.18, junior Madalyn Agren was 49th in 21:17.05, senior Adelaida Gascho was 54th in 21:26.87 and junior Rosalinda Gascho was 58th in 21:32.23 for Johannesburg-Lewiston.
PHOTOS (Top) Buckley’s Aiden Harrand pushes toward the finish line at MIS on Saturday. (Middle) Allie Nowak runs third for Johannesburg-Lewiston in leading the first-time team champion’s placers. (Click for more from Dave McCauley/RunMichigan.com.)