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.”