Runner overcomes odds to claim second at Ivy Heps

Even with frostbite starting to cause pain in her fingers, mud on her shoes, and a snow/sleet mix falling on her uniform, freshman Waverly Neer crossed the finish line, placing second among 91 women at the Princeton Heptagonal Cross Country Championships this Saturday. The freshman runner ran neck and neck for the lead until the very end and finished the 6K race with a time of 22:02.7.

“It felt really awesome to finish well and know you did the very best for your team,” Neer said. “I will never forget this race for the rest of my life.”

Neer led Columbia to a second-place finish at Heps, just two points behind Cornell for first place, and became a first-team All-Ivy runner. Though Neer had a phenomenal race on Saturday, her freshman season almost never happened. In September, with only a few weeks until the opening meet, Neer suffered her first major injury of her career.

“It was a stress fracture in my pelvis,” Neer said. “It was disappointing because I was told my season was over before it even began.”

She began to feel the pain in August and by early September it reached a point where she could no longer do day-to-day activities, much less run, without feeling pain. For Neer, who only a few months earlier broke the high school national record for the 5K, both the pain and the feeling of not being able to run felt foreign.

“I can’t compare it to any other pain, it was excruciating,” she said. “It hurt to walk around to class, and I could not even sleep. It was not a good way to start school.”

Even with the pain, Neer kept a rigorous training schedule, swimming, biking and walking on an inclined treadmill at least two hours each day to maintain her fitness level. In addition, the coaching staff helped her see medical specialists to speed up her recovery.

“Her working hard and staying positive, and us connecting her with the leading medical specialists in the area, helped her get back quickly,” cross country head coach Willy Wood said.

Even though most pelvic stress fractures take eight weeks to recover from, Neer came back in half the time in order to begin training again.

“The coaches didn’t give up on me,” Neer said. “I am so grateful and fortunate to be in this position now thanks to them.”

In her first meet back from injury at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational on Oct. 14, Neer placed third among Ivy League runners and finished just behind junior teammate Caroline McDonough. Neer continued to train with McDonough and the rest of the team in preparation for Heps.

“Caroline has been awesome to train with, she always pushes me,” Neer said. “I’ve learned a lot from her, and this goes for all my teammates. They really took the freshmen under their wings, and my teammates are like my family and my sisters.”

“The upperclassmen, especially Caroline, help the younger runners, not just with running, but transitioning to Columbia, NYC, and they take care of each other,” Wood said.

Neer now runs without pain, and with her performance at Heps, which was only her second race of the season, the Lions looked poised to display their full prowess and potential.

“We were a little guarded because she missed a lot of the season, but she raced ridiculously well,” Wood said. “The fact she is able to do that is a testament to her natural skill, tenacity, and mental toughness.”

With the NCAA Regional Championships in less than two weeks, the Columbia women’s cross country team looks to build off Heps in order to qualify for the NCAA National Championships. The Light Blue needs to finish in the top two in order to gain an automatic bid for Nationals.

“It’s going to be tough, but it is our primary goal,” Wood said. “It is a realistic goal.”

“Going into the Regional meet, the team has a really positive attitude,” Neer said. “The ultimate goal is to qualify for Nationals, and we showed at Heps that we can rise to the occasion.”