O’Shea Wilson has never liked being limited to just one event on the track.

“When I was little, I hated just doing one event or two events — that wasn’t me,” the freshman said. “I tried every event that I could do, and I liked doing all the events.”

Among those events were sprints, including the 100 and his favorite event, the 200, the long jump, triple jump as well as a number of relays.

Versatile was certainly a word to describe the native of Houston while a prep competitor.

Even with all of that talent, he still was a bit of a late addition for the Iowa track squad. Originally, his high-school coach sent the Hawkeyes his information, but there wasn’t scholarship money available at that juncture to sign him.

Wilson was put on the back burner for a while, but when money was eventually found, assistant coach Joey Woody dug out his information and got in contact with him.

“It was kind of late in the year, but I found out he was still available, so I flew down there and met with him, and he ended up committing the next week without even taking a visit,” Woody said. “He really seemed to trust in what we were doing here at Iowa.”

On the flip side, Wilson had the upmost faith in Woody and cited him and how he coached as the reason he came to Iowa.

Once on campus, the bond between him and the team was almost immediate. But it wasn’t until Wilson crossed paths with senior captain Tevin Cee-Mincy that he really began to flourish.

“Tevin is the guy I look up to on the team; he pushes me a lot,” Wilson said. “Outside of track, he wants everybody to hang out, texts me wants to go eat — he’s a team-orientated kind of guy.”

That Wilson had the physical tools to compete in so many different events has impressed Mincy and has led to a high level of respect between the two.

“He’s a helluva athlete, and with that talent, he can go far,” Mincy said. “He comes here and works hard, but he also knows when to have a bit of fun, and that’s the great thing about him — he knows when to be serious and when to be fun.”

As the track season goes into its last couple meets of the season, some of Wilson’s intangibles have also surfaced. Both his durability and the rapid improvement of his techniques has earned the trust of his entire team.

This is exactly why the coaches aren’t afraid to allow him to participate in quite a few different events. However, there is always the worry that they might be putting too much on his plate.

As for Wilson’s current thoughts? He’s more worried about the weather.

“I didn’t expect it to be this cold … no one told me it was going to be this cold.”