The bad news for the Orange men’s cross country team is some of the runners from the most successful team in squad history graduated two months ago.
The good news is junior Gabriel Schmid is ready to inherit the throne that teammate Spenser Hampton left behind.
On Saturday morning, Schmid ran through rainy conditions at WakeMed Park in Apex to win the Early Bird Challenge, which featured 178 runners from eleven teams. Cedar Ridge’s Roman Morrell, who qualified for the 3A State Championships last year, finished second.
Schmid outpaced the pack on a time of 16:01.37. Morrell came in second at 16:41.82.
Schmid, a junior who finished fourth in the Mideast Regional last October at Northwood High School in Pittsboro, won the first invitational race in his high school career. Last September, he finished eleventh out of a group of 238 runners in the Friday Night Lights Festival at the Ivey Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville.
In 2021, Schmid won two dual meets. He finished third in the Central Carolina Conference Championships, which Orange captured as a team. Schmid’s then-freshman teammate, Abezu Delvecchia, earned the conference championship.
Last October, for the first time ever, the Orange men’s cross country team won the 3A Mideast Regional Championship. Hampton led the Panther charge with a second-place individual finish, with Schmid not far behind. Alden Cathey, who would go on to play for Orange’s conference championship lacrosse team, came in 14th. Ethan Horton, who just moved in at American University in Washington, D.C, crossed the finish line 19th. Senior Nick Pell, the Homecoming King who also played football last fall, finished 23rd.
Schmid’s first place finish at the Early Bird Championship followed a stellar track & field season last spring. Schmid, whose mother ran cross country at Brigham Young University, finished second in the 3,200 meters at the 3A State Championships at the Irwin Belk Track inside North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro last May. Schmid earned the silver medal with a time of 9:35.89. Forestview’s Austin Brotemarkle claimed the state title.
It was the second year in a row that an Orange High runner finished second in the 3,200 meters in the state championship. in 2021, Hampton earned the silver medal.
In addition, Schmid teamed with Hampton, Ethan Horton and Nick Pell to finish eighth in the state in the 4×800 meter relay.
To prepare for his junior season, Schmid trained at the Pisgah National Forest in Brevard, where drills included running three-miles uphill at an elevation of 1,500 feet.
“That was super fun,” Schmid said.
He also journeyed to West Virginia for a ragnar race, where each member of a team of eight must run three different routes: one is three miles, another is four-and-a-half miles and the final is six miles. The longer a person runs, the more the elevation increases.
Each race is spaced out with six hours in between. Schmid, who ran the race with Hampton, ran at 7 PM, 1AM and 6 AM.
“It was very tough,” Schmid said.
In October, the Mideast Regionals will be held at WakeMed Park, which Schmid admits wasn’t easy to compete in after rain had fallen last weekend.
“WakeMed is almost like the best course in the U.S., aside from Running Lane,” Schmid said, referring to a course in Huntsville, AL that hosts a national championship every December. “It’s an awesome course and running it alone feels weird.”
It was also a strong start to the season for Morrell, who finished 11th in the regional championships. Morrell, a senior, also had a solid track & field season for the Red Wolves in the spring.