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).
Waverly Neer.
Photo courtesy of Jan Garrison
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."
