During the indoor track-and-field season, freshman sprinter Nick Efkamp said he felt somewhat uncomfortable. Efkamp just finished his first indoor season and said there were things that he wasn’t quite used to.

“I didn’t really do any events indoor that I had previously done in high school,” Efkamp said. “I was doing the open 400-[meter dash] and the 60-meter hurdles and we only had one indoor meet in high school, [so it was something I had to get used to].”

Sprint and hurdles coach Nate Wiens said that despite Efkamp’s uncomfortability, he had an excellent indoor season.

“He ran a personal best in the 60-[meter] hurdles,” Wiens said. “He led off our 4×400-[meter] relay a couple times really fast and had some good 47-point splits. He’s learning the game; he’s a fierce competitor. [I’m] really curious what he’s going to get for us outdoor.”

Efkamp said he enjoyed the indoor season, but it was quite an adjustment for him with this being his first season.

“[The indoor season] went good,” Efkamp said. “Not as good as I wanted it to, but that’s what you’ve got to expect coming into the Big 12. It’s not really an easy conference at all with [Texas] A&M, Texas Tech, Baylor and all those big boys. But I thought it went decent.”

Now that training for outdoor season has begun, Efkamp will set his sights on training to compete in the 400-meter hurdles, the 110 high hurdles and the long jump. In high school, Efkamp’s personal best in the 400-meter hurdles was 52.6 seconds at the 30-inch height.

“The long jump is probably my favorite event, but my best event is the 400-meter hurdles,” Efkamp said.

On Monday, Efkamp had his first 400-meter hurdles workout, and Wiens said there are a few things that need to be fine-tuned — such as feeling comfortable with alternating lead legs and adapting to the race — but overall, he was pleased with how it went.

“He’s just hitting his stride progression spot on,” Wiens said after the workout. “You can expect some really good things, and the preparation was very good. And we had a very good conversation [Monday] just about what we want to focus on. He’s a very focused young man, so it will be good.”