Month: November 2024

It started with a good plan.

Shortly after winning the Mideast Regional Championship on October 26, Orange cross country coach Brian Schneidewind combed through the results and times from the other results from across the state. He presciently concluded that his team’s top challenger in the state championships would be North Lincoln.

“They have a phenomenal program,” Schneidewind said. “They have been running consistently great times. I told my wife on Saturday that our goal is to beat North Lincoln. If we finish third, I could handle that. But if beat them, I thought we could take it.”

Orange’s runners either improved or maintained their times from the regionals to a road that ended in solid gold.

After winning the Mideast Regional championship three of the past four years, Orange emerged from Kernersville with its first North Carolina High School Athletic Association Cross Country 3A State Championship in school history on Saturday. The Panthers finished with 63 points to pace 21 other teams at the Ivey Redmond Sports Complex. North Lincoln came in second place at 96 points.

It is the eighth state championship in Orange athletics history and the first since the Orange softball team won the 2017 3A crown by sweeping Piedmont in a best-of-three series at N.C. State. The last Orange men’s team to win a state championship was the 2012 wrestling squad, who defeated Southwestern Randolph 34-30 under legendary head coach Bobby Shriner.

In 2023, Orange finished second in the team standings behind Croatan. In 2022 and 2023, Orange’s Gabriel Schmid won the 3A State Individual championship, the second Panther runner to ever win a state crown.

It was two juniors that led the pack for Orange. Myles Jermyn, the son of Duke cross country coach Kevin Jermyn, finished sixth at 15:56.06. Right behind Jermyn was his teammate, Lucas Van Mater, who came in eighth at 16:04.59.

While Orange’s two juniors led the pack, it was the senior co-Captains that paved the way to a championship. In his final race as a Panther, Peter Musser shaved a minute off his personal record. Musser, who was seeded 100th, wound up finishing 31st at 17:06.06.

“We wouldn’t have won if it wasn’t for him,” said senior Aiden Viola. “A handful of people are always going to have a rougher race because they’ll feel pressure, or there will be a larger group on your back or the course will be kind of rough. We had enough guys pull through and place ahead of where they were supposed to be placed.”

Another senior co-Captain, Cyrus Neal saved his best for last. Neal scored nine points with a time of 16:29. Orange junior Nolan Hufner finished 153rd at 19:41.73.

“This was four years in the making,” Musser said as he wore his state championship medal around his neck. “Last year was in the back of our minds. I’m just so glad that I could help out the team. I’m so glad I get this final victory for the team. This is one final hurrah for us.”

It was truly a team championship. To keep his runners updated about their status, members of Orange women’s cross country team were stationed throughout the 3.1-mile course. So were junior varsity runners Benji Loter and Cayden Beneville. They all counted the places between the Orange runners and the North Lincoln runners, as well as updated them on their times.

“They played a very pivotal role in locating the North Lincoln runners,” Schneidewind said. “Throughout these massive packs of runners that were traveling around and telling them where they were. It’s a cool things of how our program operates. I put it to the runners how they wanted to communicate. If our girls had messed up and started checking their phones instead of paying attention, we wouldn’t have won.”

In a field of 172 runners from around the state on a warm November day, Jermyn and Van Mater made the All-State team. Neal missed earning a spot on the all-state squad by nine seconds. Orange’s race was the last of eight state championship races, counting the women’s events.

“Our coach had a very detailed plan for what we were all supposed to do,” Musser said. “We all did our job. He broke everything

Grant Schmid, the younger brother of Gabriel Schmid, finished 23rd.

“It was pretty nerve wracking,” Schmid said. “It’s not like another easy meet. It’s definitely competition. If even one of us had not done our job, we wouldn’t have won today. But everybody did their job and did even better than what they were supposed to.”

Cedar Ridge senior Nathan Walters finished 41st as the Red Wolves finished tenth overall in the team standings. In 2023, the Red Wolves had just one runner qualify for the state championships. This year, they qualified as a team. Junior John Ngunjiri came in 46th (17:22.89). Henry Alexander finished 53rd (17:25.75) while junior Ryan Matthews finished 78th (17:55.79).

After years of celebrating Gabriel Schmid as an individual champion, the entire squad can celebrate a state championship as a team.

“This is the culmination of four years of hard work for me, Aiden and Peter,” Neal said. “Three years for the rest of the guys.”

For the first time ever, Hillsborough’s two 3A high schools finished in the top two spots in the Mideast Regional Men’s Cross Country championships.

Orange continued its dominance, winning its third regional championship in four years at Owens Recreation Park in Louisburg last Saturday. Buoyed by a 2nd place finish from junior Myles Jermyn and a third place finish from Lucas Van Mater, the Panthers finished with 42 points.

Cedar Ridge, which came in seventh last year, rocketed to a runner-up finish behind strong performances from juniors Henry Alexander and John Ngunjiri. Last year, the only Red Wolf to qualify for the state championships was Ryan Matthews. This year, they qualified as a team.

Orange won four Central Conference championships and three regional titles under head coach Brian Schneidewind. The Panthers earned their latest title despite the graduation of Gabriel Schmid, a two-time 3A Individual State champion who led the Panthers to a runner-up finish in the 3A State Championships last November in Kernersville. Orange also lost Alden Cathey, an All-Regional defenseman on Orange’s lacrosse team.

“Even though they graduated, I don’t think all of our great runners have left,”  Schneidewind. “I try to remind the runners today that it was specifically the class of 2022 with Nick Pell and Ethan Horton and Spencer Hampton that had took that big step in terms of work ethic. They instilled the mindset that running outside of practice needs to become the norm, which has continued to be embraced by this group. That’s a huge part about any success that we have.”

Jermyn, who won the individual conference championship, finished 2nd individually in the regional with a time of 15:46.06. Van Mater came in third at 16:04.66.

“Both our guys and girls teams have phenomenal human beings,” Schneidewind said. “One of the ways that they’re great individuals is their work ethic and willingness to go after a goal for intrinsic reasons rather than all the hoopla that’s probably not going to come with running. So their desire to set goals, academically or athletically, is another huge part of what’s been happening.”

Ethan Rich of Western Harnett, who finished 2nd in the region last year behind Jermyn, wound up winning the individual regional championship at 15:25.56.

“Myles and Lucas are the gym rats, so to speak,” Schneidewind said. “They’re not only getting in the miles outside of practice, but doing all the supplemental stuff. The little things to avoid injury.”

Orange finished with four of the top nine runners. Sophomore Grant Schmid, Gabrier’s younger brother, finished seventh (17:05.78). Senior Cyrus Neal, who was voted a co-Captain, came in ninth at 17:10.38. Another senior co-Captain for Orange, Peter Musser, finished 22nd at 18:20.88.

Van Mater, whose sister Katelyn was a three-sport athlete at Orange before graduating in 2023, is in his third year on the varsity cross country team. He also runs track & field in the spring.

“Another area where I’m crazy lucky in what I do is that these families set a great foundation of hard work,” Schneidewind said. “They set a balance of academic, athletics and helping the community. Lucas’ sister played a large part in his development and his older brother (Josh) ran cross country, as well. That’s the case of many of the parents of many of our athletes.”

In the women’s regionals, Orange freshman Reilly Jermyn finished fourth overall, which propelled the Lady Panthers to a third-place finish. Myles and Reilly Jermyn are the children of Duke University  cross country coach Kevin Jermyn.

“I’ve never been around someone who knows as much about running as Kevin does,” said Schneidewind. “I told Reilly this last week. As good of a coach as Kevin is, and he’s a very good collegiate coach, but he’s even better as a father. I’m incredibly impressed with his ability to put being a father over being a coach. He think of his children as people before he thinks of them as athletes.”

Orange freshman Ava Bishop finished 10th in the women’s race as Orange qualified as a team for the state championships, which will be contested today (Saturday) at the Ivey Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville.

Cedar Ridge had four runners finish in the top 17 out of a field of 117 participants. Alexander came in 8th overall at 17:07. 53. Ngunjiri finished 10th at 17:11.22. Senior Nathan Walters crossed the finish line 14th at 17:18.53. Ryan Matthews came in 17th at 17:44.59.

“Our top four have all made huge jumps in terms of fitness,” said Cedar Ridge cross country coach Jared Buddington. “Especially with John.”

Last year, Ngunjiri struggled with shin pain most of the year and raced just once. After a strong indoor track & field season, his shin problems returned last spring, sidelining him from the outdoor track season.

“He really hasn’t had the opportunity to race since last winter,” Buddington said. “This year, he ran a personal best of 18:15 in his first race. He’s run 16:48 this year, which is the top time on the team. He’s stepped up.”

Last year, Walters started the season running around the 22-minute range in the 5K. By the end of the year, he brought that down to the 18:57. This year, he’s gotten the time down to 16:58 in just his second year of running.

“He wasn’t a runner coming into the program,” Buddington said. “He’s just stuck with it. He really likes the community and being around like-minded people. He really be his true self when he’s around the team. It brings out his true personality.”

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