The 6-foot senior raced to the Class A individual state championship this past season with a time of 17:13.2. The state's 2014-15 Gatorade Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year, Ackley also won the Eastern Dakota Conference championship, the Anderson/Stavn Invitational and the Shocky Strand Invitational. She placed fourth at the Nike Cross Nationals Heartland Regional championships in 17:13.8.
Ackley has maintained a 4.31 weighted GPA in the classroom. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to compete in cross country and track and field on scholarship at Iowa State University this fall.
A member of the National Honor Society and her school's Math Club, Ackley has volunteered locally on behalf of the Wild Hog Half Marathon. "It's a lot of pressure to line up and know everyone is expecting you to win, and that you have a target on your back in every race," said Grand Forks Central coach Sean Allan. "But Karly has handled the pressure and she goes into every race with individual goals and things to work on to keep improving."
