FREMONT, Neb. (KMTV) — If you want to break personal records, you may break some shoes along the way. UNK runner Wes Ferguson knows that all too well.
He recently won his second outdoor Division II 800-meter national title in May with a PR, fast enough to qualify for U.S. Nationals in Eugene, Oregon.
"About 10 meters from the finish line I could see that I was making up a really good time," Ferguson said. "So when I saw myself finish, I saw the 1:45.46 I was blown away. In those national races, I'm not ever really worried about time, it's just about winning. I really didn't expect to walk away with a PR, let alone over a second of a PR. So yeah that was amazing."
He leaves next week but until then he's training in his hometown of Fremont so he'll be ready to face some of the top mid-distance runners in the country.
"The nerves will come, the excitement will come, but I'm just gonna try to go there and more so have fun with it and see how far I can go," said Ferguson. "I'm sure this next week it'll hit me like a bus. It's pretty cool to be able to put Division II on my back and just get us on the map. It's happened before but it's not super common that you find non-pros or non-D1 guys there which is really cool. In a way I kind of like it because it makes me the underdog. So it takes a lot of nerves and pressure away. You can just go out there and kind of be under the radar, but still know that I can compete with those guys on any given day."
It's a quiet confidence he'll take with him with the hopes of making it to the finals.
"Stay smart, keep my head up, and I think I can get through those first two rounds, and then attack it from there," said Ferguson.
