WEIDLER: ‘Wonderful athlete to coach’

From Page B8 that was unique to me.”

Weidler and Petersen figured out “that my body thrived off lower mileage, high intensity” and that her high school workouts were “higher in volume.”

At UCD, Weidler loves having more access to recovery avenues.

“I’ve been prioritizing recovery,” she says. “It’s convenient to go to the training room here … where we have a lot of great trainers.”

Petersen saw Weidler as an anomaly in high school. The talent was there but the runner remained “down ladder” as teammates ticked off eye-popping times while Weidler fought through the interrupted COVID experience and those nagging injuries.

“She was just another girl in the gang of terrific Great Oak athletes,” recalls Petersen. “Not their No. 1 by any means.”

But when Weidler came to Davis, Christmas arrived early for the Aggie distance crew.

“She’s such a wonderful athlete to coach,” Petersen continues.

“She’s so attentive to everything. She’s a wonderful racer. … You know when she gets on a course, Bri’s going to make that into a magical race day. Which is really cool for me because I get to watch what she does.

“I feel so blessed that she chose Davis. She’s so naturally talented,” Petersen notes.

So, does this distance maven have a definitive style or is she analytical with her coaches about the field she’s about to compete in?

“We try very hard not to go into too much depth about who’s going to be in the race … what kind of competition she might expect,” says Petersen, who is assisted by her husband Drew Petersen, a former distance champion by way of Davis High and UCD.

“We always tell her we can control her race (because) we don’t always know what everyone else is doing.”

Run in front, come off the pace, fall down … It doesn’t seem to matter to Weidler. Running in the pack by feel, at the end she frequently breaks the tape first. Wait. What? Did you say “fall down?”

Oh, yeah. When she rewrote the Aggie record book in the Clay 5,000 at Azusa Pacific, she went to the ground at about 4,000 meters.

Petersen remembers being away from the action, standing on the other side of the course that day:

“Drew called and said, ‘She just fell.’ I felt sooo bad for her because she put so much effort in and now a stumble …

“But she got straight back up. (As she) went by I shouted, ‘Bri, you’re so brave. Keep it up. Do what you can!’ “ You know how it went: Run hard, fall down, get up, set a school record.

Bruce Gallaudet, former sports editor and managing editor of The Davis Enterprise, can be reached at bgallaudet41@gmail.com or (530) 320-4456.