Justin Vilhauer never dreamed of standing so high, looking down.

"No, not on the top of the mountain," he says.

But now that he is — a Central Section record-holder — The Bee's boys cross country Runner of the Year from Redwood High itches to climb a little higher.

"Yeah, it feels great to be on top of the mountain," he says, "but I don't feel that high. There's another mountain, like state, and I really want to prove myself."

Who's to stop him now after flushing a 25-year section?

The junior did so by clocking 15 minutes and 2 seconds at Woodward Park's 3.1-mile course while placing third in the CIF State Championship Division II race.

Loyola-Los Angeles' Elias Gedyon, another junior, ran a state D-II meet-record 15:00 to win the race.

Edison-Huntington Beach's Matt McElroy also timed 15:02, but was a couple inches ahead of Vilhauer to collect the silver medal.

McElroy, however, is a senior, leaving Gedyon and Vilhauer to return next season with targets on their chests.

Vilhauer speaks of Gedyon as if he's known him since childhood. Vilhauer can name other established state and national runners, and the courses on which they run.

"He's really competitive, and he gets on the Internet to see what everybody does," Redwood coach Joe Gonzales says. "And when they do something good, it motivates him in practice."

It's a sudden reach-for-the-stars approach for the 5-foot-6, 118-pound athlete who was all about soccer until a couple years ago.

"I was always told I was in the wrong sport, that I should be running," he says.

The beauty of long distance running is you get two shots — in the fall in cross country and in the spring in track and field.

Soon after he caught his breath from that stirring state run in late November, Vilhauer was pointing to the 3,200-meter event in track.

He ran 9:02 as a sophomore, but bombed in the section's Grand Masters meet at Buchanan, placing a non-state qualifying fourth at 9:27.43.

With that shoved so seemingly deep into history, given his cross country accomplishment, he's got a new number in mind: "8:48."

Why?

"Has a nice ring to it."

Hmm. Perhaps the 17-year-old is disguising his true motive.

The Central Section record book shows Reedley's Peter Romero atop the 3,200 list at 8:49.4, set way back in 1967.

Well, the section cross country standard of 15:07 had been set by Sanger's David Naranjo quite awhile back, also (1984).

"I got the cross country record," Vilhauer says. "And now I want to get it in track."