Schilter’s best makes Gold worth it to Navs
Northwest Christian High School cross country coach Larry Weber decided to take a chance and move his 2B boys squad up to the Gold Division of Saturday’s Fort Steilacoom Invitational, a race that included nationally ranked 4A schools Tahoma and Eisenhower.
It was worth the risk in Lakewood.
Navigators junior Luke Schilter, running his first 5K race of the season, used a strong start to clock a personal best of 15:32.7, good for second place and less than five seconds behind winner Graeme Schroeder of Tahoma. Schilter’s mark is the fifth best in the history of the meet and, if not for Schroeder’s 15:28.1, would have been the fastest since 2009.
“I felt good for the first half of the race,” said Schilter, who had worried about going out too fast. He may have done just that as he finished exhausted enough to lay for many minutes under an oak tree a few feet from the finish chute. “It’s cool that I did so well here. I usually run my best times at state or on our home course.”
Weber was excited by both Schilter’s performance and by the overall strength of his team’s results, good for seventh place with 186 points. Tahoma took first with 48.
“Luke ran the race of his life,” Weber said. “And our top four runners were all up there.”
Three other Navigators broke the 17-minute barrier: Corban Phillips in 16:42.2, Luke Bredeson in 16:45.2 and Colton Buster in 16:59.6.
Running as an individual in the Gold Division, Peter Allegre of North Thurston — Northwest Christian’s closest competitor — cracked the top 10, finishing ninth in 16:04.0.
Olympia finished fifth on the girls side of the Gold Division with 126 points and had two runners timed in under 20 minutes. Stella Grimsted was ninth in 19:20.6 and Brenna Carlson 16th in 19:50.2.
Claremont, which flew up from the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, won the team title with a scant 25 points while Kamiak’s Taylor Roe was the individual winner in 18:22.9.
Tops among South Sound girls in the Silver Division was Capital’s Naomi Reyes, who finished fourth in 19:36.5.
Weber was pleased with Northwest Christian’s girls was well. Running in the Silver Division, the Navigator girls had three personal bests among their top five runners and a second best as well. Megan McSheffery led the way with a sixth-place finish in 19:47.9 and Elle Summers was 12th in 20:14.5.
In the boys Silver Division, three South Sound runners broke the 17-minute mark. Tumwater’s Evan Groat was sixth in 16:40.3 and teammate Joseph Morrissey was 17th in 16:54.5. Two spots ahead of Morrissey was Olympia’s Ben Riley in 16:51.
This story was originally published September 19, 2015 at 6:40 PM with the headline "Schilter’s best makes Gold worth it to Navs."