Up bright and early, junior Xander Schulte-Sasse begins his run, his one chance to qualify for state. Twelve hours later, he’s on the brightly lit stage, acting as a witty clergyman to the theater’s large crowd. For Schulte-Sasse, this was the final culmination of months of hard work, juggling both varsity cross-country practices and advanced acting rehearsals. 

As a member of the advanced acting class, Schulte-Sasse participated in frequent practices and rehearsals leading up to the performances of Pride and Prejudice. He portrayed Mr. Collins in the play, a role that friend and cross-country teammate junior Miles Antaya found fitting for him. 

“Doing acting makes him very charismatic,” Antaya said. “I thought Xander fit his character really well.”

Castmate and friend, senior Callan Mitchell also expressed praise for Schulte-Sasse’s performance. 

“[Xander] is very talented, especially with all the physical comedy aspects. If you saw Pride and Prejudice, he’s really good,” said Mitchell. 

But when not at acting rehearsals, Schulte-Sasse could be found training or competing in cross-country, a season which ran concurrently with the advanced acting’s play preparations. This overlap made Xander’s fall schedule very demanding. 

“There’s definitely some sacrifices that he’s had to make,” Mitchell said. “But he still shows up and has that [good] attitude.”

“It’s really impressive that he was able to balance the play and cross country, because that’s a lot,” Antaya said.

Schulte-Sasse has been a valuable member of both the varsity cross country and track teams since freshman year, though he found his initial success quite surprising. 

“I didn’t think I was gonna be that fast. But it turns out, I was a placing runner. So then from the start, I just had to be engaged for the sake of the team,” Schulte-Sasse said.

Schulte-Sasse’s engagement inspired others to dedicate themselves further as well. 

“He’s really fun to run with, and he’s really passionate about the sport,” said friend and cross-country teammate Miles Antaya. “I think he’s kind of like a magnet, like draws a lot of people toward him.”

Even more, Schulte-Sasse’s engagement has paid off in terms of achievements. In his sophomore cross country season, Schulte-Sasse was awarded second team all-league and qualified for the state meet. This year, he received first team all-league honors for cross country. However, Schulte-Sasse is not yet satisfied, and has set even bigger goals for upcoming seasons. 

“Next year, I’m hoping to get top five in the state [for cross-country]. It is a bit ambitious,” said Schulte-Sasse. “In track, I want to be all-league and qualify for NCS, and hopefully for state in the 3200.”

Both of Schulte-Sasse’s parents ran in college, his mother at Stanford and his father at Yale. Because of this, running has always been a family affair for him. 

“I actually started running in fourth grade, because in our mile time trial, Ms. Martin told me I run like my mom,” said Schulte-Sasse. “Both of my parents encourage [running], and having them gives me an advantage, I think.”

Schulte-Sasse hopes to follow in his parents’ footsteps, quite literally, and run in college.

“I hopefully want to run division one,” said Schulte-Sasse, “I’d like to have a team that can compete.”