By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– Blanchet Catholic’s Noah Lutz has fully embraced the distance runner lifestyle.
After starting as a sprinter as a middle schooler, Lutz made the move over to distance runner as a freshman. Running more the 800-meter, 1500-meter, and 3,000-meter variety of races instead of the shorter races.
The legacy that his mom left at Willamette University with distance running and his sister Emma, who was a distance runner when she was at Blanchet and currently runs at Lewis and Clark College, were impactful for Lutz to make the move.
It motivated him. The idea of the commitment to the craft of distance running had been that itch he was looking to scratch in his athletic career. There was a void there in the distance running sector for his squad, so Lutz joined the legacy of his mother and his sister and went to work.
And it was a successful move. His hard work and determination, the time training up at Steens Mountain Running Camp, it all has led him to where he was today, signing his Letter of Intent to run Cross Country and Track and Field at Willamette University.
“It gave me the motivation to be a distance runner. There was no one on the team. There was nobody out there, and I felt like we needed someone new… to branch out and do something new,” said Lutz of the switch.
“This is a ginormous opportunity for me…I’m going to have a lot of new challenges,” he adds about going on to Willamette University.
With his eyes set on a return trip to the State Track and Field Meet later this month, Lutz finished 11th in the 2A 3,000-meter race last season, Lutz is hoping on slowing the pace down in training in preparation for the big meet’s that are coming up soon for him.
“I think I need to calm down a little bit with the momentum and the pace of running. Keep the same mileage, but not go as tough so that I can stay fit and stay in peak condition for State and the Invitational in Sisters coming up so I can improve and keep getting PR’s and hopefully get under the 9:50’s/9:40’s in the 3K’s and get into the 5:30’s for the 15’s.”
