SEQUIM — Waverly Shreffler changed things up her junior year.
Instead of playing soccer for Sequim in the fall, as she had done her freshman and sophomore seasons, she ran cross country.
Then in the spring, during the track and field season, she switched her focus from sprinting to middle-distance running.
“Especially for females, for running, it’s common to move up in distances when you get older,” Shreffler said.
“I do a lot of weight training with my sprinting coach, B.J. Schade. He suggested that I try the 800.”
The transition was successful, and Shreffler has been selected as the All-Peninsula Girls Track and Field MVP by the area’s coaches and the Peninsula Daily News sports staff.
In her first year running the event, Shreffler placed fourth at the Class 2A state championships in the 800-meter run.
She also helped the Wolves’ 4×400-meter relay place fifth and the 4×200 relay qualify for state.
“We changed what she was doing event-wise from more of a sprinter to more of a distance girl, and it paid off,” Sequim head coach Brad Moore said.
“A lot of sprinter kids would be better at longer distances.
“A kid like Waverly, she’s a fast 400 and has good 100 and 200 times, so you start to think about her potential for the 800.
“You’re always trying to put kids where can they be most successful.
“She’s a fast girl and we felt that at the state level and potentially for her at the collegiate level . . . in the long run, she had a great potential as a middle-distance runner.”
The shift to the 800 took her away from her first love, the 400, in which she qualified for state as a sophomore.
She had a great shot at making state again in the 400 as a junior — she won the event the five times she ran it during the regular season and took second at the Olympic League championships — but gave up the dream after the Olympic League championships.
“The 400, even though it might not be my best race, it’s one of favorites,” Shreffler said.
“We spent hours before the sub-district meet deciding if I should run 400 and 800 all throughout the season.
“But it probably would have jeopardized the relays, so I dropped the 400 and focused on the relays.”
The 800 is the next step up from the 400, but that doesn’t mean the races are similar.
In the 400, runners go really fast — as fast as they can — for about a minute.
The 800 requires more thinking and more of a plan, and lasts longer than two minutes.
“I like the strategy in the 800,” Shreffler said.
“That was one of my favorite things because you don’t stay in your lane the whole time. In the 400 you stay in your lane the whole time.
“The 800 . . . is more of a competition.”
One thing the races do have in common is that Shreffler had the North Olympic Peninsula’s best marks in both: 2 minutes, 20.09 seconds in the 800, and 59.49 seconds in the 400.
Proving her ability in sprinting and distance running, Shreffler ranked fifth in the area in the 100, third in the 200 and fourth in the 1,600, despite limited participation in those three events.
She also was part of the area’s fastest 4×400 and 4×200 relays.
In fact, she teamed with Mercedes Woods, Gretchen Happe and Heidi Vereide to break the school record in the 4×200.
“That was a surprise, actually,” Shreffler said.
“Halfway through season we had to decided if wanted to focus on 4×100 or 4×200.
“We put together a 4×200 team, and we raced that a few times, and I think second time we did it, we broke the record.”
A few seeks later at the district meet, they beat themselves, breaking their own school record with a time of 1:48.14. (They went on to place 13th at state).
The same four runners also nearly broke Sequim’s 4×400 record, falling less than a second short with a 4:06.96 in the state prelims.
“We knew that we would be close. We hope to do that in the 4×400 next year,” Shreffler said.
With only Vereide graduating, that school record is in serious jeopardy.
True to the personality of a long-distance runner, Shreffler already is making plans for her senior season.
“In cross country, I want to break 19 minutes,” she said.
“In track, I guess below 2:18 in the 800 and hopefully top-three at state. And I hope that our relay is also top-three.
“In the 400, I would love to hit 58 [seconds] consistently, but I think I’ll end up focusing on the 800.”
Moore expects Shreffler’s times will improve significantly next year, especially since her body will be even more adjusted to the longer distances.
“Her sophomore year, we got to see the kind of speed she had,” he said.
“This year, she put speed together with endurance, but the reality is she didn’t have a ton of endurance base under her.
“By time she comes back around the track next year, she’ll have two years under her belt. I think you’ll see her times drop tremendously.”
Shreffler hopes her running career continues after her high school career ends. She said she prefers a smaller college in Division II or Division III.
“I know she wants to compete at the next level, and we honestly believe she has the ability to do that,” Moore said.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
