Before taking up running, Katie Weber was a dancer. She danced for 13 years before giving it up her freshman year of high school to place her full focus on running.
From Columbia, Weber started running cross country in seventh grade. She attended Irmo High School, where she said she really enjoyed her running experience.
“One of my proudest accomplishments is, my sophomore year of high school I went to State as an individual,” Weber said.
Along with making it to the state meet, Weber received multiple academic awards in high school.
She said when she began considering running in college, she applied to a handful of schools and sent emails to coaches. While Anderson University was her number one choice for a while, she said she ultimately “fell in love” with Winthrop.
“I sent an email to Coach Paxton and I said that I was touring the school and wanted to meet to him. I gave him all my times and stuff and he met with me – that was right before my senior year.”
Last year as a freshman at Winthrop, Weber only got a taste of what it’s like to be a college athlete. After participating in cross country events last fall, Weber said she did not run indoor track, giving her a redshirt season for that event.
Weber said she was primed to have a really good outdoor track season when the coronavirus canceled the remaining spring events. However, her freshman year was not a waste.
“I learned a lot of time management things,” Weber said. “It was difficult to balance running and school, and I have really high aspirations for myself academically. That’s one of my really big priorities.”
Now as a sophomore, Weber said she’s looking forward to improving as a runner.
“I want to do better and improve on what I did my freshman year,” Weber said. “I was really happy with it, but it wasn’t quite what I wanted, so I want to do better. And I just really want to run and have a season.”
Aside from running, Weber said she likes to read and go hiking. She doesn’t have much of a race-day routine, but an interesting thing about her is that she triple-knots her shoelaces before competitions, though she said it’s not because she’s had a shoe come off before.
“I’m just so worried that it will,” she said. “That’s one of my superstitions – I have to triple-knot my shoes.”
After college, Weber said she wants to go to school for physical therapy to get her doctorate.
“Maybe one day [I’ll] coach cross country and track in high school. I think that would be fun too, but that’s kind of all up in the air.”
Photo by Olivia Esselman
