Neer earns All-American distinction at national race in home state

Freshman Waverly Neer returned to her home state of Indiana to compete in the 2011 NCAA Cross Country National Championship this weekend and on Monday night. She returned to Columbia as an All-American.

“For [Waverly] to earn all-American status in her first Nationals appearance was wonderful,” Cross Country Head Coach Willy Wood said in an interview with GoColumbiaLions.com.

At the Cross Country National Championship, hosted by Indiana State University, Neer finished 40th overall out of 254 runners to earn All-American honors. She set a personal record with her time of 20:30.4 in the 6k race, coming in just a tenth of a second behind Vanderbilt’s Alexa Rogers. Neer finished third among Ivy League runners behind Dartmouth’s Abbey D’Agostino and Princeton’s Alex Banfich, and as the top freshman at the meet.

While Neer only ran four meets in the 2011 season because of injuries, she still came back with strong showings to earn All-Ivy, All-Regionals, and All-American honors.

“We were thrilled for Waverly. For her and in her first Nationals to come out and perform so well, we were so excited for her. She executed the race plan perfectly,” Wood said.

The Lions, who have not competed as a team in the National Championship since 2005, showed their strength with the men’s team finishing 27th in the nation. The Light Blue narrowly missed finishing in the top 25 with their 591 points, just two points behind Eastern Kentucky and 11 points behind Tulsa. Columbia’s Ivy League rival, Princeton, finished 19th in the nation. Senior Kyle Merber led the Lions with a 98th-place finish overall among the 252 runners gathered at Indiana State. Merber shaved more than a minute off his time from the Northeast Regionals to finish the National Championship 10k race with a time of 30:47.7. Behind Merber was junior Mike Murphy, who finished 125th overall with a time of 30.59.2.

The Lions’ Nico Composto, Jake Sienko, and Leighton Spencer all finished within a second of each other to finish 174th, 175th, and 176th, respectively. The other two Light Blue runners, senior Justin Heck (198th, 31:46.8) and junior Ben Veilleux (247th, 32:45.5), rounded off Columbia’s strong showing at the National Championship.

“We were hoping to finish a little bit higher as a team, and we were very close to doing so, but they ran perfectly, it was a great performance for us,” Wood said. “They executed the race plan well. But I’m happy, the guys ran well.”