Columbus North’s Katherine Rumsey competes the Brown County Semistate at Eagle Park in Nashville, Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021.
The Republic file photo
With both of her parents being Purdue engineering graduates and her older sister a mechanical engineering major at Purdue, Katherine Rumsey might have been destined to become a Boilermaker.
The Columbus North senior not only plans to study engineering at Purdue the next four years, she is set to run cross-country and track for the Boilermakers.
“I’ve known that I want to study engineering for awhile, and it’s just a really good secondary program,” Rumsey said. “After cross-country season, I reached out to the coach, and they seemed interested, and the team environment was just really positive when I went up to visit.”
Rumsey, who has better than a 4.0 GPA, will be on academic scholarship. She could have earned an athletic scholarship from a smaller school, but was sold on Purdue.
“I got letters from smaller schools, but I never really looked into them just because getting a good engineering education was important to me, so I wanted to go to a college that was going to give me that higher education and athletic opportunity,” Rumsey said. “Purdue is the only one I seriously talked to.”
Columbus North’s Katherine Rumsey finishes the race in the Girls Cross Country State Finals at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Saturday Oct. 30, 2021.
The Republic file photo
Rumsey’s breakout season came her junior year in track, when she qualified for the state finals in the 3,200 meters. Then in the fall, she finished 36th at state to help lead the Bull Dogs to the team title. She also earned a spot on Team Indiana for the Mid-East Cross Country Championships.
“My junior track season is really what made me consider running in college more,” Rumsey said. “I dropped enough time to make running at Purdue an option, and then cross-country season just followed that. With those fast times, I knew that I wanted to give running in college a shot.”
That running career began in fourth grade with the Girls on the Run program and progressed through middle school and high school.
“I think what’s really helped me is just our team environment and having girls that can help push me that I can run with and the positive mental attitude that we can always accomplish more,” Rumsey said.
Rumsey’s personal-best for a 5K (3.1-mile) cross-country season is 18 minutes, 30 seconds. This track season, she wants to improve on her personal-best times of 11:11 in the 3,200 and and 5:14 in the 1,600.
“My goal is obviously run at state and do well there,”Rumsey said. “I want to break 11 minutes (in the 3,200), and in the 1,600 meters, I hope to get close to 5:00.”
