Cedar Crest High School’s Eliana Schneider, a multi-talented athlete who has won numerous track and field medals, balances her athletic success with musical pursuits and academic interests while preparing for collegiate heptathlon competition. (Provided photo)

Contrary to popular belief, there are times when Eliana Schneider, a newly crowned national champion, isn’t doing something.

Times when the soon-to-be senior at Cedar Crest isn’t competing in track and field, a sport in which she has also won, to this point in her career, four Lancaster-Lebanon League championships, seven District Three medals, and three PIAA medals.

Times when she isn’t playing the viola in the school orchestra or strumming her guitar at home, with an eye on maybe taking up the banjo someday. (And never mind that she doesn’t own a banjo – yet. “Senior gift,” she said with a chuckle, dropping a hint in the direction of her parents, Hans and Beth.)

And times when she isn’t reading – she prefers dystopian novels and historical fiction, among other things.

Surely there must be occasions when she just … chills. And she did indeed assure a reporter recently that that is the case.

It’s just that it doesn’t happen all that often.

“I just find joy,” she said, “in doing as many things as I can.”

The weekend of June 19-21, Schneider won the javelin competition with a heave of 147-3 at the New Balance Outdoor National Championship Meet in Philadelphia’s Franklin Field. Schneider outdistanced second-place finisher Karlee Buterbaugh, a rising sophomore at Marshall University and native of Cabot, Pa., by nearly two feet.

This followed a spring that saw Schneider overcome illness to anchor the Falcons’ district-champion 3,200 relay team, which also included Audrey Fugate, Hayden Wamsher and Emma Pavlesich. Schneider finished second in the javelin and fifth in the high jump at districts, then had respective finishes of fourth and sixth in those events at states.

The preamble to all that was a repeat championship in the high jump at the L-L meet.

“The legend grows on Eliana,” Crest coach Rob Bare said.

He was referring specifically to her performance in the relay at districts, after awakening the day of the event looking “white as a ghost,” as he put it. But he could have been speaking more generally, given all she has accomplished so far.

She won the league javelin title her freshman and sophomore years, the latter with a career-best throw of 153-1, then took district gold in that event that season as well, with a heave of 149-11. This spring she threw 148-1 at states, marking the second straight spring in which she finished fourth.

Her best in the high jump is 5-6, achieved at the last two L-L meets. She cleared 5-5 this year at states, and believes 5-8 is in her immediate future.

Her friend, classmate and teammate, Kaddel Howard, never ceases to be impressed by Schneider.

Read More: Cedar Crest’s Kaddel Howard refuses to be hamstrung, races to third PIAA crown

“I love how determined she is,” said Howard, a three-time state champion in the 400 meters. “I feel like if she really wants something, she’s going to really work for it. She’s really serious about the sport, and I love that. And I know she’s going to accomplish really big things.”

Also very many things. It should come as no surprise that Schneider plans to compete in the heptathlon in college, a two-day event that consists of the 100-meter hurdles, the high jump, shot put, 200, long jump, javelin, and 800.

She’s done two heps to date, the second the weekend of June 7-8 in a USA Track and Field (USATF) meet at Millersville. She earned 4,260 points, her highest total so far.

Naturally colleges are interested, Duke, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, and Bucknell among them. While she doesn’t yet have any campus visits planned, that figures to happen in the near future.

In the meantime, she will, of course, stay busy. There will be other USATF meets this summer. Her guitar always stands at the ready; she said she can pick up music by ear, something not everyone can do. And there’s always that banjo, somewhere down the line.

“I think it’s a very interesting instrument,” she said, adding that she is a bluegrass fan. “It has a unique sound, so I want to see what it’s like.”

Her parents inspired her multitasking. Hans competes in mountain-bike competitions and trail-running races, and Beth has entered some trail races as well. For a time Ellie was an interested onlooker. Same for her younger sister Clara, now a promising distance runner approaching her sophomore season at Crest. Then the girls took all that and literally ran with it.

“Whatever is in season is what we embrace,” Beth said. “As the girls were younger, that’s what we kind of brought them up through also. When it was summer biking season, we’d bike. Running, we’d run. Winter, we’d ski.”

Ellie played basketball and field hockey in her younger years, and runs cross country now. But back when she was in elementary school, she displayed a throwing arm superior to that of her classmates while playing football at recess (and while playing quarterback in a game between the fifth-graders and the teachers).

Beth took note, and when Ellie turned 12 or 13 – Ellie can’t remember which – her mom gifted her with a javelin – or, at least, a model tailored to younger throwers called a TurboJav. It is shorter and lighter than the one used by older competitors. It is also rubber-tipped.

“She excelled from the get-go with that,” Beth said.

In time she graduated to the real thing, and her career soared. One of the few setbacks came earlier this spring, after she competed in four meets in a seven-day period, including the Penn Relays and the Lebanon County meet on the same day (April 24). That left her with a sore shoulder. Rotator cuff, she said, though she added that it was not a tear – just the result of doing “a lot of throwing that probably shouldn’t have been done.”

Despite a mid-season shoulder injury, Cedar Crest’s Eliana Schneider anchored her school’s district-champion relay team and secured top-six finishes in both javelin and high jump at the state championships. (Provided photo)

She was idle for the better part of a month. Bare even elected to hold her out of the javelin at the L-L meet, despite the fact that she was the two-time defending champion in that event.

“She tried to sweet-talk us into competing,” Bare said with a chuckle.

Ultimately she relented, though.

“It was pretty hard,” she said, “just because it would have been cool to be a four-time league champ, and that kind of got rid of the opportunity.”

She took solace in the fact that she was able to compete in other events, and then began ramping up for districts and states. She threw 131-10 to earn silver in the javelin at the first of those meets, which she described as “a getting-back-into-it kind of meet,” then uncorked the 148-1 throw to finish fourth at states.

Now there are more things ahead. Always something more. Always a new challenge, a new experience. She’s a competitor, yes, but her immersive approach is rooted not just in winning and losing, but living.

“I think it’s really cool just to have all these experiences, meet all these people,” she said. “It makes life fun.”

Now everything she could possibly want is out there in front of her, well within reach. And she’s bound and determined to grasp it, hold it close and make the most of it. We should all be so blessed.