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.
Waverly Neer.
Photo courtesy of Jan Garrison
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."
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