John Cusick
Sep 6, 20226 min
Updated: Sep 7, 2022
Edits and additional commentary by Garrett Zatlin
NOTE: Earlier this summer, The Stride Report reached out to nearly every team that was considered for a possible ranking this summer. While we did receive numerous responses and great clarity, we did not get a 100% response rate. On some occasions, we are referencing TFFRS or team rosters in order to properly and accurately talk about returners and athletes who are out of eligibility.
In most scenarios, losing your top runner from last year's national meet would be a huge blow in terms of absent scoring potency. Trying to rebound from that kind of departure would often make it challenging to put a team in our top-10.
But even though that is the case for the Cedarville women in 2022, that scoring loss still shouldn't stop the Yellow Jackets from once again flirting with a top-10 national meet finish in a few months time.
In our eyes, the Yellow Jackets will likely be just fine in 2022.
The only question we have is...just how good will they actually be?
Looking at the 2021 cross country results for the Yellow Jackets instills some confidence in their ranking as we head into this upcoming fall campaign.
Last fall, the Cedarville women started their season with a rust-busting effort at the Mike Baumer XC Classic. There, we saw them place 3rd overall as a team.
Sisters Alayna and Savannah Ackley were the top-two runners for Cedarville that day, finishing 6th and 7th overall. Naomi Herman, Mary Miller and Hannah Rhem were the team's three final scorers going 18-19-25, giving the team 72 points in a field full of Division One opponents.
But truthfully, there was only so much that we could truly take away from that result.
At the All-Ohio XC Championships, Cedarville walked away with a 5th place team finish. They were once again led by the Ackley sisters.
This time, it was Savannah finishing 7th overall with Alayna a bit further back in 16th place. Herman finished just two spots back of Alayna in 18th while Bethany Sholl and Emily Walsh finished 36th and 48th, respectively.
The Yellow Jackets finished with 121 points and were the first Division Two team in the field, beating midwest standouts like Walsh, Malone and Findlay fairly comfortably in the process. That was a massively encouraging result as the Cedarville women dived deeper into the 2021 season.
But while both of those meets led to encouraging early-season results, far greater challenges lied ahead for the Yellow Jackets.
When they attended the Louisville XC Classic, we figured that we would see the full potential and scoring impact of a Cedarville team that was on an early hot-streak. But instead, what we saw was not a true indictment of this team's talent.
When the dust settled and the points were scored, the Yellow Jackets finished 17th out of 44 teams that day. They finished as the fourth-best Division Two team in the field.
Alayna Ackley and Sholl were the only two athletes inside the top-85 finishers as they placed 73rd and 83rd overall. From there, a fairly significant gap would form as Savannah Ackley crossed the line in 152nd place. Emily Walsh finished 161st while Herman was two spots behind in 163rd place.
While Cedarville's collective team effort wasn't horrendous, there were certainly scoring areas where this team could have been significantly better. Luckily, they would take a step up one week later in what was ultimately a redemption effort.
The Yellow Jackets won the Royals XC Challenge by placing four athletes inside the top-10 of the results. Alayna Ackley, Sholl, Savannah Ackley and Herman went 5-6-7-9 to set their team up for success while Rhem capped their scoring at 38 points by finishing 17th overall.
That upfront firepower and sneaky-quick scoring close-out was later replicated in the postseason.
Cedarville later won the GMAC XC Championships, again placing four athletes inside the top-10 while scoring 45 points to Walsh's 61 points. And the best part? They did that with the Ackley sisters finishing outside of their top-five scoring lineup, making their win that much more impressive.
The Cedarville women would finish 3rd at the Midwest Regional XC Championships as the trio of Alayna Ackley, Sholl and Savannah Ackley finished just 10 seconds apart. Herman was 35th overall with Sweeney finishing 39th overall to give the Yellow Jackets 137 points and a national qualifying spot.
The team's scoring five was separated by just 21 seconds, improving upon their 41-second gap that once hindered them at the Louisville XC Classic.
Once they reached the national stage, Cedarville proved that they were one of the top teams in Division Two despite a team performance that could have actually been even better.
Led by Sweeney in 56th place, the Yellow Jackets finished 11th as a team on the nation's biggest stage. Alayna Ackley was 65th overall, but she was the only other athlete for Cedarville inside the top-100.
Savannah Ackley, Sholl and Herman went 111-125-142 in the final results, giving their team 430 points, a result that likely could have been better based on how their conference and regional meet lineup structure looked.
On paper, we would have had to do some serious repositioning for the Cedarville women to make up the 67 points that separated them from 10th place finisher U-Mary. And yet, when you start to look at the results more closely, it's not exactly an impossible exercise, either.
Let's get the bad news out of the way: Rachel Sweeney has graduated and she won't be part of this team in 2022. That's a fairly concerning development, especially since she was the team's top scorer at the 2021 national meet.
And even when she wasn't the team's top scorer, she was still a top-five contributor fairly consistently. In some way, shape or form, her lineup value will need to be replaced by the returners who Cedarville brings back.
Alayna Ackley is fresh off of the most successful track season of her career. This past spring, she ran 34:58 (10k) and qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships, her first-ever appearance.
That's an encouraging sign for Cedarville, especially if that progress translates to an All-American finish come November, something that the Yellow Jackets lacked last fall.
However, the elder Ackley sister wasn't the only one who had that kind of national-caliber success on the oval.
Bethany Sholl joined Ackley at the 2022 outdoor national meet after a huge breakout year, giving the Yellow Jackets two athletes who qualified for the national meet in the 10,000 meters. On the oval, Sholl ran 16:57 (5k) and 35:19 (10k), showcasing a significant breakthrough dating back to the start of the 2021 cross country season.
If Sholl is as good on the grass as her track results suggest, then this is a team that should instantly rebound from Sweeney's departure...we think.
Savannah Ackley also saw great success on the oval between the indoor and outdoor track seasons as she gave Cedarville yet another strong distance athlete to rally around.
The younger Ackley sister ran 4:42 (1500), 9:59 (3k), 17:25 (5k) and 35:47 (10k), making her incredibly well-rounded and, maybe more importantly, consistently competitive.
Teammate Naomi Herman saw the success on the track, posting similar times as Savannah. She ran 4:41 (1500), 9:53 (3k), 17:15 (5k) and 35:40 (10k), all of which left us with plenty to be encouraged about.
Remington Hobson is also returning to this team in 2022. She set personal bests in the 800 meters (2:23), the 1500 meters (4:47) and the 5000 meters (18:06). And while those times are not necessarily jaw-dropping, her overall progression (and momentum) is something that Hobson can build upon going into this 2022 cross country season.
When you step back and look at some of these times, you'll realize that the Cedarville women boast five runners who have broken 36 minutes in the 10k. And truthfully, there not be many other teams in the country who can say the same thing.
Cedarville might be one of the deepest teams in the country without anyone who is a proven cross country All-American -- and that's fairly rare. When you have teams with as much scoring support as the Yellow Jackets, there is usually someone leading the way in the top-40 of the national meet results.
But Sholl and the Ackley sisters could absolutely be those marquee names to lead this team in 2022. Replacing the low-stick value of Sweeney, while difficult, is a very realistic possibility based simply on the improvements that we are expecting to see from their returners.
However, after a few inconsistencies throughout last fall and without yet seeing how their track success translates to the grass, we opted to be cautious and place this team at TSR #10.
We should also mention that Emily Walsh, Anna Steich, Abigail Skurdal, Karoline Pees and Amy Plank were all viable backend options during the regular season in 2021. All of those women will return for the 2022 season.
Another year of training and gained experience for that backend group could potentially help make this Cedarville team much more competitive in 2022 than they already were in 2021. On paper, the floor for this team is exceptionally high.
While the Ackley sisters were doing most of the heavy lifting in 2021, the supporting cast of Sholl, Herman, Rhem and Hobson should be more than enough for this team in 2022. And if Sholl emerges as the true low-stick that her track seasons says she can be, then this team will likely be better than a fringe top-10 squad.
With six of their seven athletes returning, finding someone who can fill-in and serve as a solid backend piece is something that should resolve itself before the national meet in December.
And in that case, it appears that Cedarville is on track for yet another strong season in 2022.