McKenzie Reser said she didn’t feel like the 400-meter dash chose her until late in her career.

The Sycamore and Augustana graduate is done collegiately and is still looking to compete to see exactly how much success she can have after she closed her college career at the NCAA Division III National Championships with a second-place finish in the 400-meter dash.

“When you run it and you’re good at it, it chooses you at that point,” Reser said. “You don’t choose the 400; the 400 chooses you.”

Reser said the national finals were just the ninth time she ran the 400, not to mention the first time she was testing a new game plan.

She won the CCIW meet three weeks earlier with a 55.1. She took more than a second off her time at the national meet, finishing in 54.07.

“I’m just throwing caution into the wind,” Reser said. “I’m just going to do what I know how to do and trust the universe.”

Given how she kept improving in the 400, she didn’t feel like giving up just yet. While her eligibility at Augustana is up, she’s training and planning on competing starting in February.

Reser graduated from Augustana and is taking a gap year, although it’s really anything but. In addition to training and competing, she’s preparing to take her LSAT and is clerking at the Champaign County Courthouse. She plans on attending law school in the fall, a dream of hers since she was 10.

Reser is focusing on the 200 and 400. She was fifth in the 200 nationally this year, finishing in 24.06, and is the Augustana record-holder in the outdoor 200 as well as the 100. She also set CCIW records in the outdoor 200 and the 60. She was all-conference in nine different events.

“I feel like if I picked a different school to go run at, I wouldn’t have had that kind of experience,” Reser said. “I’m forever grateful for the fact I chose Augustana College.”

Her freshman year was the first year Isaac Smith became head coach of the women’s program. Smith is still helping her train.

Smith said he and Reser haven’t really spelled out specific goals yet. But generally speaking, post-collegiate careers start with running in any meets that will accept a runner. Then runners can get accepted into bigger regional meets, which for Reser would mean something like the Kansas Relays or Drake Relays.

And if things go well, it’s on to something like the U.S. Championships or time trials.

“I just feel like she had more to give,” Smith said. “I think it’s just a genuine appreciation and love for the sport and wanting to compete, but I think she also wants to see where it goes.”

Reser qualified for the Class 2A state championships in the 200 in 2021, finishing 16th in 26.59.

She said she wasn’t very pleased with how her freshman year went. Her 200 time didn’t really improve, peaking at a 25.7 at a mid-season race.

“My freshman year, I didn’t come in very well-trained,” Reser said. “I was very behind on training. I was very frustrated, because I knew what I was capable of, and that’s not the performance I was putting on. I really just wanted to focus on getting better.”

Usually that means summer workouts. But for Reser, that didn’t start until after her sophomore year. She said some personal issues kept her from the time commitment necessary to do full-time workouts.

But once she made that commitment, she said, she started setting personal records by a second or more every week.

“It was a lot of work, and I’m really proud I dedicated that much of my free time to putting in the work to get better,” Reser said.

After that, her times started dropping, and the records started falling. Since she feels like she’s really only given it her all for two years, she said she wants to keep going a while longer to see where it ends up.

“Those are the first years I’ve ever taken track that seriously,” Reser said. “I’m curious to know how fast I can go, and that’s the journey I’m on right now with it. I just want to know how fast I can go, and wherever it leads me is wherever it leads me.”