Charging ahead of the competition
At first glance, one would never suspect what Karin van Rooyen is capable of. With her tiny frame and sweet South African accent, van Rooyen is a ball of energy that helps drive the success of the SMU cross country team. Van Rooyen was named the Western Athletic Conference Cross Country Woman Athlete of the Year and also won first place in the WAC Cross Country Championship Saturday.
Born in Lothair, South Africa, van Rooyen is one in a set of triplets. Her uncle came to SMU, so when she was recruited to run here, she jumped at the opportunity.
Van Rooyen, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, says she is the only athlete of her four sisters. In South Africa, she played field hockey and netball, a South African sport similar to basketball, in addition to track. She began running when she was 7 years old.
“I always liked running. I would race with the dogs, and I had fun doing it, so I started running in high school,” van Rooyen said.
Van Rooyen ran throughout high school and made the South African running team twice. She said it is different running here in America.
“The biggest difference between running here and in South Africa is that I kept competing against the same people over and over again,” van Rooyen said. “It’s exciting to run over here because there’s a lot of international students. I get to compete against Germans, Kenyans and more different people.”
The training schedule is intense, consisting of 2-kilometer repeats, mile repeats, weight training, swimming and stretching. Their workouts are twice a day except on Wednesdays and Saturdays. On Sundays, they have 85-minute runs.
“On my long runs on Sundays, I clear my mind and organize my day. It’s fun to wander off and think of lots of different things,” van Rooyen said.
Van Rooyen has established herself among other student cross country runners in the United States. She recently won the Chile Pepper Festival 6k race in Fayetteville, Ark. She was the 2001 WAC Freshman of the Year and has won many of the races she has entered this year.
“Karin is probably one of the most disciplined individuals I’ve ever met in my life,” said John Rembao, the women’s cross country coach. “She’s pretty unusual in that way. I think about that all the time, how’s she so mature for her age.”
Rembao said he hopes van Rooyen will pursue a future in cross country.
“I think she has the characteristics to become an incredible athlete, even be a world-class athlete if that’s what she chooses to do. It’s a long process, but if anyone has the mentality to do it, she certainly does,” Rembao said.
Van Rooyen is unsure of what path her life will take, but she knows she wants to keep running.
“I would go out of my mind if I had to stop running,” she said. “When we take a break, like in between seasons, and I just relax, my mom gets so annoyed with me because I have so much energy. She has to send me out of the house and tell me to go do something. I get bored easily if I don’t run.”
The near future holds much competition for van Rooyen. The NCAA regional meet is in Waco Saturday. The NCAA championships will be at Indiana State University at the end of November.
