In most sports, there is an offseason.
It’s something that Gabriel Schmid is unfamiliar with.
Just after winning his second NCHSAA 3A State Championship last month in Kernersville, he concluded the day by going out for another run.
Just three weeks later, Schmid ran in the South Regional Cross Country Championships at McAlpline Greenway in Charlotte. He was the top runner from North Carolina, crossing the finish line in 7th place at 14:57.90 in a field of 210 runners.
On Saturday, Schmid ran his final high school cross country race when he competed in the Foot Locker National Championships at Balboa Park in San Diego. He came in 16th in the country at 15:41.60, just three seconds behind Patrick Noon of Tallahassee, Florida, who finished first in the South Regionals last month.
Drew Griffith of Butler, Pennsylvania came in first at 15:06.90.
While Schmid will continue his cross country career in college, his final high school race marks the end of an era for Orange cross country. With Schmid as its leader, the Panthers won two Mideast Regional and three Central Conference championships since 2021.
Last year, Schmid became just the second runner in Orange High history to win a state championship in cross country and the first at the 3A level. Bradsher Wilkins was Orange’s first cross country champion in 1997 at the 4A level. Wilkins won again in 1998.
Schmid has been a competitor throughout the course of his life.
As a 5th grader living in Longmont, Colorado, Schmid went to the Junior World Cross Cross Country Championships in Minneapolis and New Mexico. He competed in American Ninja Warrior competitions.
Schmid was born in Phoenix, Arizona and eventually moved to Portland, Oregon. Schmid’s father works for Topcon Healthcare, which provides medical software to eye doctors. With a chance to leave the Pacific Northwest, Schmid’s father eschewed a move to New Jersey and chose to live in Efland instead.
As a sophomore, Schmid played two fall sports. He was a regular performer for the Orange men’s soccer team, but opted to go into cross country full time after he broke 16 minutes under head coach Brian Schneidewind. Schmid is quick to point out he broke 16:00 before his teammate Spencer Hampton, who graduated in 2022. That’s when he decided to leave soccer behind and focus on one sport in the fall.
Like Schmid, Hampton went on to become an All-State runner who won a regional championship in the 3,200 meters in 2022 at Southern Lee High School in Sanford.
Schmid, who was also named the Central Conference Male Runner of the Year for the second straight year last month, will continue with his track and field career in March. Last May, Schmid won the 3A State Championship in the 3,200 meters at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. He finished with a time of 9:14.94, become the first Orange athlete to win a state championship in track and field since Jamar Davis in 2018.
Schmid won two Mideast Regional cross country championship in 2022 and 2023. In addition, he won two regional Mideast Regional championships in outdoor track and field in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters in Franklinton. He finished second in the state championships in the 1,600 meters last May.
With the state championship in track and field, Schmid joined an impressive list of names from Orange’s past. The first-ever Panther to win a state title in track and field was Alvis Whitted, who was named the Most Outstanding Performer of the 1993 4A championships in Chapel Hill. Whitted would go on to play football at N.C. State and is still the only Orange Panther to play in a Super Bowl. Whitted was deployed on special teams for the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego against Tampa Bay. Whitted is now the wide receivers coach with the Utah Utes after stints with the Wisconsin Badgers, the Colorado State Rams and one year with the Green Bay Packers.
Davis competed for N.C. State for five years and participated in the Penn Relays in 2018.