Norm Brauer, the executive director of Minden's Sierra Lutheran High School, was sitting in the bleachers at Damonte Ranch at the state track & field championships last May when something caught his eye.
There was Smith Valley sophomore Wade Meddles literally running away with the 1A state title in the 3,200 " finishing in a state meet record time of 9:53, which was the third fastest at any level in the event during the two-day meet.
But it wasn't so much Meddles' impressive performance on the day " he also took second in the 1,600, missing the state title by a 10th of a second " that caught Brauer's attention.
It was an odd black mark on Meddles' calf that made him go down to field level for a closer look.
"I knew Wade already," Brauer said. "He'd been trying to get to our school for two years but his family was waiting for their house to sell in Smith Valley. I didn't know if he had a bad bruise or a dirt clog or something on his leg."
It turned out to be a cross that Meddles had marked out before the meet.
"I asked him about it," Brauer said. "He said it was his personal encouragement to others to follow the cross. It's the perfect place for it, because when you watch a kid run, you naturally follow them around the track. It draws your attention. That's just the kind of kid he is. He loves the Lord and he loves to run, in that order."
After a breakthrough performance at the Stanford Cross Country Invitational two weeks ago, that attention has had a sharp spike.
Meddles, now a junior at Sierra Lutheran, ran the 3.1-mile course at Stanford in 15:28 to take first in his division. It was the second-fastest time of the day at any level and is one of the top times in the country this season.
"He came in from Smith Valley and we only got him at the very start of the season," Sierra Lutheran cross country coach Dave Marson said. "He came in here only having run about 15 miles a week. He's just a kid with a passion to run and a natural ability to process oxygen."
Meddles said his initial introduction to cross country was a surprise, but he's managed to recover nicely.
"Smith Valley didn't have a cross country team," he said. "I played football my freshman year and I ran track my freshman and sophomore years. I pretty much just did speed work and ran about 15 miles a week. I show up at Sierra Lutheran and we're running almost 10 miles a day. The first week took its toll on me, but I'm getting used to it."
Getting used to it indeed.
Meddles took second at the season-opening Twilight Run at Reno's Rancho San Rafael Park, won the Douglas High class races at Lampe Park, won the North Tahoe Invitational and took second at Reed behind Galena standout Bryan Tibaduiza before the Stanford meet.
"It's funny, I did track in junior high and I didn't even like it," Meddles said. "I couldn't do anything with it. I was always aching and sore. Something changed during my freshman year, though, and I really started to love running.
"Coming in to do cross country this year, it's like a bonus season for me."
Meddles said the race at Stanford started out quickly. He said he knew he had to get to the front early.
"I heard coach yell 4:50 something after the first mile," he said. "I just tried to set my own pace and there were a couple guys right with me. It went like that the whole race and then I was able to pull away toward the end. I heard my time and I was pretty excited."
The performance brought quick response from a number of prestigious national invitationals.
"He's been invited to the Arcadia Invitational, he has an invite to the Golden West, the junior nationals," Marson said. "We're going to try for the Foot Locker Nationals. If he keeps performing like this, he can end up with a pretty heavy schedule of national meets."
Meddles' arrival, though, is far from the only bright spot for the Sierra Lutheran cross country program.
The boys' team is consistently posting some of the fastest times in the region at any level and the school is fielding a girls' team for the first time.
"So far only Galena and Reno have been posting better times than our guys," Marson, who owns an energy bar company and trained for the 1984 and '88 Olympics in the 1,600, said. "They're looking pretty good. We're having fun. That's the key, just trying to keep a good balance on things."
Through the first five meets of the season, the Falcons have taken second overall at North Tahoe and third overall at Reed. Both meets had some of the top traditional powers from the 4A division in attendance.
At Stanford, the boys' team took 11th out of 35 schools in its division and third out of schools with enrollments of 500 students or less.
"We don't have that many fall sports (Sierra Lutheran's only other fall sport is volleyball)," Marson said. "We're not competing for participants. There's only 72 kids in the school and we have 17 running with us. It's a pretty good percentage."
While things are looking good for the Falcons heading into the state championships in four weeks, the team is only focusing on having fun.
"We were OK last year and we've slowly gotten better," Falcon senior Michael Kubel said. "Wade's made a huge difference. We had a lot of incoming freshmen and they've helped us out a lot.
"The most important thing for us is to have fun. Last year we focused too much on trying to qualify for state as a team and trying to win our meets and we ended up getting humbled because of it. There were three teams that qualified above us. This year we're just trying to stay humble and go with whatever God gives us."
Kubel has been consistently in the top 10 to 20 runners at the meets this season and has been a solid No. 2 runner for the Falcons. The rest of the varsity roster is made up of junior Levi Grabow, freshman Nathanael Williams (who took second at the Lampe class races and won the freshman race at North Tahoe), junior Andrew Deterding, junior Preston Lyons and sophomore Nathan Conover. Senior Ryan Jackson has also run in a couple of varsity races for the Falcons.
"They keep getting stronger and stronger every year," Marson said. "We started this a couple years ago and we should be even stronger next year. There are some strong runners at the JV level and we're only losing one varsity senior."
Sierra Lutheran's junior varsity squad includes freshman John McRae, sophomore Nick DePaoli, senior Bob DePaoli, freshman Jason Deterding, freshman Connor Love and freshman Anthony Brewer.
Freshmen Becky Grabow and Tori Jackson make up the girls' team.
"It's our first girls' team," Marson said. "We're getting at least three more freshmen next year. It's a good thing. They are putting in their time this year and they are improving in a hurry. We should have enough to compete in the team standings next season."
