Waverly Neer still seeks elusive Indiana track titles

Following a breakout fall and winter, Culver Academies (Ind.) senior Waverly Neer has one more score to settle – she wants to complete an outstanding prep career by winning her first state titles in track.

Because she always has set her goals so high, the 5-foot-8 Columbia University recruit was never truly satisfied with her career until she captured her first state cross country championship last fall in a time of 18 minutes, 17 seconds.

Along the way she had run under 18 minutes six times (with a career-best 17:40). She also had broken sectional, regional and semistate records held by Culver graduate Alex Banfich, who won five track and three cross country state titles during her brilliant career.

Even that triumph was achieved by the slimmest of margins, because she nipped Nicole Lucas of South (Bloomington, Ind.) by less than a second. It was, in fact, the second-closest finish in Indiana history.



"It came down to the last two steps. I remember crossing the finish line. I collapsed. I was so exhausted," she told MaxPreps. "I don't know how long I laid there. I was in a lot of pain, but I still had a smile on my face. I felt like a lot of weight had been lifted off me and my dreams came true. It opened my eyes that hard work really does pay off."

Not long afterwards, she continued her march to greatness by placing 14th during the Foot Locker Nationals in San Diego to earn all-American honors.

"That was an amazing highlight of my season – even better than the state championship," she said.

Even those magical moments, however, were overshadowed in early March when she won the 5,000-meter run in a national-record 16:35.15 during the New Balance Indoor Nationals in New York City.

Prior to the meet, her coach, Mike Chastain, had told her, "You're in shape to win. But to win you're going to have to set a national record."

So, she took a big gulp and set a goal to run 16:40 (the 7-year-old record was 16:43.02).



Neer was able to set her goals so high because she was coming off a pair of confidence-building Indiana races during which she twice had personal-record times for the 3,200 (10:42 and 10:37) while running at a 5K pace.

"Those were huge PRs for me," she exclaimed. "Just to run them for workouts (her term) was really cool. It showed I was really strong. If I would run 16:40, I knew it was going to hurt a lot. But I was used to that (inward) negative chatter."

She actually ran second for much of the race. With about 800 meters remaining, however, she took over the lead and won handily by eight seconds over front-runner Kathryn Fluehr of Naples (Fla.).

"I saw her (Fluehr) kind of falter," Neer recalled. "When you're given this opportunity, it just comes down to your will to win. (After the race) I saw my coach and my dad and we all started to cry. It really was a neat moment."

Chastain added, "She still had a little bit more in her tank – if anybody had been around (pushing her to the finish line). To say she was on Cloud Nine definitely was not an understatement."

Continue reading{PAGEBREAK}Flashing back to her youth growing up in Russiaville, Ind., Waverly was destined to be a runner because her father, Dana Neer, loved running and the family spent a lot of time in the outdoors. At age 2, Waverly won the 25-yard dash over two other youngsters in Kokomo, Ind. As a fifth grader, she ran 5,000 meters for the first time in Sharpsville, Ind., and was the youngest finisher, placing in the top 20 out of 200 entries (including adults).



In seventh grade, she ran a 5:12 mile. To put that time in perspective, the school record at nearby Western High (Russiaville, Ind.) is 5:16. That same year she made her first national impact by placing second in a 3,000-meter race during the Junior Olympics in Baltimore.

Neer was allowed to attend nearby Westfield (Ind.) as a freshman, because her father – a youth minister at Bible Baptist Church in Kokomo, Ind. – also was an assistant coach in cross country. She first had to recover from a summer stress fracture before joining the cross country team. By the end of the season, she had recovered well enough to help her team win the state championship.

In track that spring she ran on a state-champion 4x800 relay team. She also placed a distant second in the 3,200 behind Culver senior Alex Banfich.

Just settling in nicely at Westfield, Neer suddenly was confronted with a transfer to Culver Academies where her father was hired as a counselor.

"I really have to give it to coach Chastain, who does a great job of understanding his runners and what makes them tick," Neer praised. "He has helped me grow mentally and physically at Culver."

Chastain, in his 37th year, coaches boys and girls teams in track and cross country.



"My expectations were pretty high," he said of his newcomer. "But I had no idea that she would do the things she's doing now. She has definitely exceeded my expectations at this point. One of the areas of her improvement, she's gotten even more consistent with her eating and sleeping habits."

Nevertheless, she calls her sophomore year "kind of a blah season." That included a 14th-place finish in the state cross country meet, 20th place at the Foot Locker Regionals and second-place finishes while getting out-kicked down the stretch in both the 1,600 and 3,200 at the state track meet.

There must be thousands of runners around the country who would love to have that kind of a "blah" season.

"I used to go out really hard and hang on (at the end)," she noted. "I have developed into a consistent runner and my finish is stronger now."

Her junior cross country season was marred by a back problem which limited her to swimming-only during one three-week period. She was seventh in the state meet. In track she again finished second in the 1,600, but slipped to fifth in the 3,200.

"It was hard to rebound," she said of her latest failure to win a state track title. "It took a long time to get over that state meet. I was heartbroken for a very long time. I always felt I had gotten so close."



To shake off the dust and clear her head, Neer decided to run a new event, the steeplechase, during the New Balance Nationals in Greensboro, N.C., that summer.

"I had never gone 800 meters over barriers," she pointed out. "There were so many girls from New York and New Jersey who have that as a regular event. They were asking me, ‘What's your best time?' They kind of dismissed me (as a contender)."

Despite having just two weeks of practice, Neer finished seventh – one spot short of making All-America. Still, she said with a laugh, "You can prove to yourself that you are an actual athlete if you can complete that race."

Later that summer she won the 2,000-meter steeplechase against what she conceded was a weaker field during the USATF Junior Nationals in Chicago.

This spring, Neer hopes to run in the Penn Relays and soon afterwards will set her sights on winning the elusive 1,600 and 3,200 at the Indiana state track meet. Her past failures still haunt her, so she refuses to settle for anything less than finishing on top before graduation.

"I think that has been really an irritant for her," Dana Neer acknowledged. "She's poised and positioned to have a very good run at both titles this year."



Waverly is much more than an athlete. She carries a 3.8 GPA and plans to major in photo journalism at Columbia. She belongs to a campus leadership group and currently is in Mexico with Habitat for Humanity and has raised more than $2,000 to provide clothing and sports equipment for students at a Mexican elementary school.

She follows such standout runners as Olympians Kara Goucher and her favorite Hoosier, Amy Yoder-Begley.
Whether she makes an Olympic or professional team in the future still remains to be seen.

Chastain puts it this way: "She will shoot for the moon. Whether she reaches it or not, she still will give it a good shot."

Waverly has the final word when she says, "It's something I enjoy and I don't want to give it up. I'll probably die running. I would like to run until I am unable."