GF Herald-“Hutchison leads GF Boys”
JAMESTOWN—Karly Ackley crossed the finish line, walked a few steps, leaned over and quietly muttered, ”Oh, my God.”
“I do that all the time,” Ackley said. “Maybe I’m a little over dramatic. I’ll be the first to admit that.”
The Grand Forks Central standout took the drama out of the race here Saturday at the North Dakota Class A high school cross country meet. Ackley led from start to finish in capturing the individual title.
Fargo Davies won the team title with 71 points, followed by Bismarck Century (95) and Central (97).
Ackley ran a personal-record time of 17:13.15 to beat runner-up Mattie Shirley-Fairbairn (17:24.24) of Bismarck by more than 10 seconds. It was a reverse of the order the two finished at state last season.
“It was a hard run,” said Ackley, who also won state as a sophomore. “But it was a good hard run to get that fast of a time.
“I was hoping for a PR. It’s state. Everyone runs faster at state.”
The state meet capped a season in which Ackley, who was named Class A senior athlete of the year, was ranked first in the weekly state coaches’ poll all season and in which she didn’t lose to a North Dakota opponent.
“To be the state champion and run a PR at the end of the year, that’s all you can hope for,” Central coach Sean Allan said.’
Central also had top-10 finishers in Alexis Roehl (seventh) and Rachel Torrey (10th). The Knights had more top-10 finishers than any team in the field.
But Davies had more top-20 runners than any team in the field in beating Central for the first time this season. Bridget Henne (11th) led the Eagles, followed by Megan Lundstrom (12th), Payton Lane (14th), Cory Duffield (16th) and Ryleigh Wacha (18th).
“We knew they had those three strong girls up front,” Davies coach Jason Edwards said. “They knew we ran up in a pack. The pack worked in our favor today.”
Allan said he felt during the race that Central wasn’t in a good position to win the program’s first state title.
“I figured that we were behind where we needed to be,” Allan said. “I’d seen the Davies runners on the course. We could see we were in trouble.”
Red River, led by Campbell Dorsey (78th), finished 16th (491).
Hutchison leads GF boys
Bismarck Century won the boys A team title with 62 points, beating runner-up Williston by 33.
Grand Forks Red River (170) was sixth and Central (278) was ninth.
Leading the Grand Forks runners was Red River’s Ben Hutchison, who ran a PR (16:00.67) in finishing fourth.
“It was the first time I broke my PR this season,” Hutchison said. “I was hoping to finish at least third. But getting a PR helps (offset the place).”
Central had one top-20 all-state runner in Richie Osborn (18th).