The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At start of historic career, Fegans had self-doubt
Before she came to hold nine school records, Nicole Fegans was plagued by doubt, lacking in confidence and wondering if she had what it took to make it as a distance runner at Georgia Tech, to say nothing of her ability to handle the load in the classroom.
She was frustrated, didn’t allow herself the grace to make mistakes and couldn’t enjoy the sport she loved so much as a high schooler at Landmark Christian School. There was little indication of what lay ahead for her: becoming the greatest female distance runner in school history.
At the end of her sophomore year, she realized that she had essentially ruined her year of running with her mindset.
“Because I would be at practice and just be like, ‘Oh, I’m tired, I’m out of shape,’ because I was hurt,” Fegans said. “‘This is going to be a bad workout.’ And then it would be a bad workout because I’ve told myself it would be a bad workout.”
By turning her approach in a healthier direction, she will conclude her Tech career Saturday at the NCAA track and field championships at Oregon’s Hayward Field. Tech’s only entrant in the championship, Fegans is one of 24 runners who will take the line for the 5,000 meters.
It will be the final race in a career in which she has won three ACC championships and earned All-american status five times, among other accomplishments. “I feel like there’s ‘running Nicole,’ and then there’s me,” Fegans said. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, running Nicole has (accomplished) all those things.’ And then running Nicole is just still also overwhelmed. Like, ‘I can’t believe I just did that.’”
When Fegans came to Tech in the fall of 2017 from Landmark Christian, there was reason to think she had a chance at such greatness. She had been a high-school
All-american, most notably finishing seventh in the Foot Locker cross country national championships the previous December.
“And so you knew she had that level of talent,” Tech coach Alan Drosky said. “But there’s so many unknowns. How are they going to handle those transitions that you make in college? How important is this to her? And those are questions that you try to answer in recruiting, but at the end of the day, those are just kind of best guesses.”
The transition, as it often is, was bumpy.
“Every day, I’m like, ‘I don’t think I’m smart enough. I feel like I’m not good enough for this,’” she said.
Though she was Tech’s second-fastest finisher at the ACC cross-country championships
that fall and then helped set the school record in the 4x1,500 relay, the doubts followed her into her second year. A stress fracture in her left foot suffered in the fall of 2018 — she competed on it through the end of the season, when she helped Tech qualify for the NCAA cross-country championships for the first time since 2001 — that put her on the sideline didn’t help.
Even her successes didn’t necessarily alleviate her stress.
She recalled Drosky telling her that she needed to find her confidence, telling her that she belonged at Tech. In her words, Fegans said was tired of being hard on herself.
“I’m like, ‘Dude, just relax,’” she said. “‘You’re good enough to be here, and just enjoy it.’”
The past three years have been the fruit of the fusion of Fegans’ physical gifts, inner drive and belief in her ability to compete with the best college runners in the country.
She won the 10,000 at the ACC outdoor championship in 2021 (setting the school and meet records of 32:45.30 in her first-ever 10K race at the college level) and won the 3,000 conference indoor title again in February of this year. She finished 12th at the 2020 NCAA cross-country meet, earning All-american status. Drosky said it’s “pretty clear-cut” that Fegans is the top female distance runner in school history.
Her confidence and perspective now enable her to move on from poorer performances rather than dwell on them.
“That’s how I get now where, even after bad races, yes, I’m disappointed, but I know I’m better than that,” she said.
At the NCAA Championships, her goal is to finish in the top eight and earn firstteam All-american status.
“It’s one of the toughest years, I feel like, in terms of times people have run,” Fegans said. “So I’m just doing what I can now, and hopefully I go there and run what I want, and I’ll see how it goes. And if not, that’s OK.
“Sort of.”