In spite of a tough season, Northwood’s girls have a lot to celebrate. Even with two top runners missing time because of injuries, one the entire season, they’re on their way to the state championship for the first time in almost 30 years.
Lest that sound like a long futility streak, know that from 1987 to 2004, the school itself was closed and the building used as a haven for other school’s students during renovations. Prior to that, the team scored state championships in 1975, 1977 and 1978.
Tall, sinewy, spectacled and pretty darn fast, Jonathan Ferguson has a direct gaze, matter of fact delivery, and an impressive running resume, but he shrugs off the suggestion that he’s intense. A former Division I swimmer at the University of Maryland who transitioned to running after college, Jonathan may have a “take it easy” button, but he doesn’t seem to have located it yet.
As a swimmer, he focused on freestyle and butterfly, but he’d swim every event. His coaches liked him in distance but he pushed to take over the shorter races. As a runner, his favorite distance is the 5k. A marathon was an absolute no, never. Like most reasonable people, it seemed like too much.