SEQUIM — Waverly Shreffler learned pretty quickly that cross country was going to be more than a run in the park.
“I remember when [last] season started it was hard for her to go out and do a 4- or 5-mile run,” Sequim coach Harold Huff said.
Shreffler had always enjoyed running, and she had run 5Ks before, but she was new to cross country going into her junior year, having made the switch from playing soccer for the Wolves.
“The first practice we ever had was only maybe 5 miles, and I could barely walk and I was so sore,” Shreffler said.
“By the end of my senior year, I was doing 8 miles, no problem.”
Huff said Shreffler is “naturally fast,” and she turned that built-in speed into a 33rd-place finish at the Class 2A state championships in 2014.
By her senior season, Shreffler added mileage to her legs and strategy to her brain by her senior season, and she placed sixth at the state meet, third at districts and second at the league meet. She also has been chosen as the All-Peninsula Girls Cross Country MVP by area coaches and the Peninsula Daily News sports staff.
“Her best race of the year was absolutely at state. That was a great finish,” Huff said.
“She just ran a perfect race. She just kept going a little harder and a little harder.
“That’s an experience thing. She realizes that thing about pace and saving a little for the finish.”
As a junior, Shreffler admits that she started too fast at the state meet and ran out of energy too soon.
At this season’s 2A state championships, at Sun Willows Golf Course in November, Shreffler started patiently and made note of how many runners were ahead of her.
There were about 20. Her goal was to finish in the top 10, not start in the top 10, so she stuck to her pace and her plan.
“I kind of picked off people one by one and stayed strong mentally,” Shreffler said.
“You know, I like to come up from behind . . . because then they don’t really know that you’re coming.
“And I can use some of my speed. If you time it perfectly, they don’t have any energy to pass you back.”
She continued passing other runners up until the end, including one she ran by in the final 100 meters of the race.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling when you know you ran the best race you could,” Shreffler said.
Sheffler also used her experience when she ran against Port Angeles sophomore Gracie Long this season.
Shreffler admits to being psyched out by Long when she was a junior.
“Gracie’s a phenomenal runner, and it was pretty intimidating to be a junior running against a freshman who is faster than you are,” she said.
“This year, I went in with the mentality that I just wanted to stick with Gracie.”
While the state meet was Shreffler’s finest race, the Olympic League championship meet was the greatest race she was part of.
Just ask Huff: “That was one of the best races I’ve ever seen.”
Shreffler and Long were within a few strides of each other for the entire 5-kilometer race at Cedars and Dungeness in Sequim in October.
Shreffler could tell Long was feeling pain from a foot injury that would end up preventing her from competing at the district and state races.
She felt bad for Long (“I think runners have more admiration for each other than other athletes,” Shreffler said), and she was relying on her. So Shreffler started encouraging Long.
“There was a few times I said, ‘Gracie, keep going, keep it up,’ from behind,” Shreffler said, “because I knew that she was pacing me, and if she slowed down, I would slow down.
“And if I passed her, then we would play the passing game and waste a lot of energy.”
Long held on to win her second consecutive league title with a time of 18:53.93. Shreffler was second for the second straight year with a time of 18:54.44. Those are the best times for both runners in their high school careers, and the only time either broke the 19-minute mark this season.
“It was a great race,” Shreffler said. “I wish that I had beat hear at the end, but she had a great finish.
“And we both ended up getting PRs, and you can’t beat that.”
As competitive as the league race was and as well as she ran at state, Shreffler said neither are her favorite accomplishment of her senior season.
“I think I’m most proud that our team made it to state, because our girls team hasn’t made it to state in years,” she said.
“Standing on the podium alone is great feeling, but standing on the podium knowing that your team has worked so hard together is a better feeling. Just to help them get there was an honor for me.”
Shreffler, who also was the All-Peninsula Girls Track and Field MVP in 2015, will continue her running career at the next level.
She returned from a visit earlier this week to Western Washington University, and is currently choosing to run cross country and track there or at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
