Efkamp not satisfied with anything less than his best
Nick Efkamp competes in the men’s final 60-meter hurdles in the ISU Open on Saturday, Jan. 21, at Lied Recreation Athletic Center. Efkamp finished last with a time of 8.78.
April 17, 2012
While freshman Nick Efkamp performed and placed well Saturday at the Jim Duncan Invitational, he said that he wasn’t necessarily happy or satisfied with it.
Efkamp, a native of Madrid, Iowa, placed second in the long jump with a leap of 22-09.00, but he said he wasn’t quite happy with how the event went for him.
“My form was kind of struggling on Saturday,” Efkamp said of the long jump. “Yeah, sure, it’s second place, but I’m looking beyond that. It just wasn’t a good day for the long jump.”
Efkamp said he has been hard on himself and was that way Saturday with the long jump, but that is how he feels that he was able to come to Iowa State and compete at a high level.
Sprints coach Nate Wiens said the whole reason he recruited Efkamp was because of the attitude he saw from him with never being satisfied with anything less than his best.
“‘I’m just not going to lose,'” Wiens said of the attitude he saw from Efkamp. “I think that was a little bit of what our team needed at the time. I like the dimension that his personality brings to the team.”
Efkamp said that after being slightly disappointed with how the long jump went, he was happy to come back and run the 200-meter dash, winning the event with a time of 21.38. Efkamp also said it was nice to have an overcast day to run in because it is not always good when the sun is beating down on you.
“It was my first time ever running the 200,” Efkamp said. “Coach [Wiens] was pretty excited, but I’m just going to keep trying different events to see where I can score the most points for the team when it comes conference time.”
Wiens said he just put Efkamp in the 200-meter dash to see what he could do in that event and was pleased to see him run that kind of time.
“I knew he could do it, but then when he did it, you’re not shocked, but you just know he can do it, but he still has to go out and actually get it done,” Wiens said. “We just kind put down what we knew he was capable of.”
Efkamp said he will be heading to the Mt. SAC Relays and will compete in the 400-meter hurdles, the 200-meter dash and the long jump.
