Turns out you can go big and go home. At least, bigger, and to your home state.

Riley Pyeatt, the Sequim High 2022 graduate who had a hand in four school track records, earned two state titles (800, 1,600-meter relay) and helped the Wolves’ 4×400 team take a state and national title in her senior season, is headed back to Washington state after two years as a student-athlete at Abilene Christian University.

Pyeatt officially transferred from the Texas school to Washington State University after entering the transfer portal in the spring.

“I definitely wanted to transfer; [I’d] thought about it in the winter of this sophomore year,” Pyeatt said last week. “I was so homesick. I missed home so much. I wanted to be on the west side [of the country].”

She also said she was hoping to join a larger Division I school. Abilene Christian, a Western Athletic Conference school located on the central plains of Texas about 2-and-a-half hours from Dallas, boasts an enrollment of about 4,550; WSU’s is approaching 30,000.

Pyeatt, who as a freshman for Abilene’s Wildcats, posted five top-10 finishes and as a sophomore earned three victories at 800 and 1,500 meters and eight top-three finishes in both indoor and outdoor track, said she put thoughts of transferring on the back burner so she could finish her spring outdoor strong at Abilene Christian. She set a personal best in the 800 to finish third in the Western Athletic Conference finals in mid-May.

Photo by Joshua Beam Riley Pyeatt (1513), a 2022 Sequim graduate and state track champion in two events, is pictured running for Abilene Christian at the Western Athletic Conference championships in the 800 meters earlier this year. She recently transferred to Washington State University.

By April, it was time to look at West Coast schools.

“It was super fun at first; a bunch of schools did reach out,” Pyeatt said.

However, WSU’s Cougars weren’t first and foremost on her mind. However, her high school track and field coaches — head coach Brad Moore and assistant BJ Schade are both Cougars — did have her ear as she considered the change.

It was a phone call from Laura Harmon, head coach of WSU’s women’s cross country squad and an assistant on the Cougar track team, that cinched it for Pyeatt. The Sequim racer visited WSU’s main campus in Pullman in June.

“I fell in love right away; it was so cool,” Pyeatt said. She met up with some WSU runners whom she’d raced in club track meets years prior.

As for studies, Pyeatt is an agribusiness major, which fits in with WSU’s strong agriculture studies programs.

“It was honestly a really easy decision,” she said.

The choice went over well with Schade, who competed for the Cougars on the track in the late 1990s and set some of the top school marks at Sequim High in the mid 1990s.

“He always talked about WSU,” Pyeatt said.

For his part, Shade said he actually encouraged Pyeatt to consider transferring to a Division II school where her 800 times would likely put her into the stratosphere of an All-American. It worked for SHS track stars such as Jasmine McMullin, a two-time triple jump All-American at Western Washington University, and Alex Barry, a two-time All-American in the javelin at WWU, he noted.

Sequim Gazette file photo by Michael Dashiell / Sequim High senior Riley Pyeatt races to a win in the 800 meters at the state 2A track and field championships at Mount Tahoma High School in 2022 — breaking her own school mark in the process.

“If she keeps doing what she’s doing, she might make All-American (in Division I), but it’s incredibly tough,” Schade said.

“She wants the challenge. I think she can do it. She’ll have better invitationals than what she had in Texas, better weather to run in, a better training facility.”

However, when Pyeatt said she was headed to WSU, Schade was pleased.

“I mentioned [WSU] but … she came to the decision largely on her own,” Schade said.

“BJ doesn’t show emotion very much,” Pyeatt said, but when she told him about her decision to transfer, he brought his old gear from WSU to take photos of her announcement.

“I felt like I was modeling,” Pyeatt said.

While she said she’ll miss people she met and relationships she made in Abilene, and in particular the coaches, a number of her friends had transferred from the school and she’s ready to be at a bigger program.

“I’m excited — I love that [Pullman] is a college town,” Pyeatt said.

“If you’re someone that likes the smaller town atmosphere, you’ll like [Pullman],” Shade said.

And being on — or near, anyway — the West Coast, Pyeatt will have a chance to compete in invitationals that her family — parents Doug and Tracie, and sister Bridget (“Birdie”), still rooted in Sequim, can attend.

“Even if there are meets in Oregon, my mom will go,” she said.