{"id":24885,"date":"2017-01-31T11:24:56","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T16:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/news\/?p=24885"},"modified":"2017-01-31T11:24:56","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T16:24:56","slug":"going-the-distance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/news\/2017\/01\/going-the-distance\/","title":{"rendered":"Textile Engineering Graduate Student is Going the Distance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Runner Kaitlyn Kramer has been part of exciting moments during her athletics career at NC State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In October, the Wolfpack women\u2019s cross country team<\/a> captured the Atlantic Coast Conference title as the host team at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary \u2013 improving a spot over its 2015 finish. For the second year, Kramer earned all-ACC honors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then in November, NC State finished fourth at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana \u2013 again, a one-position improvement over 2015. That season, Kramer\u2019s finish in the race had secured NC State\u2019s first top-five appearance since 2001; she beat Michigan\u2019s sixth runner by nine seconds and 14 places to serve as the team-standings tiebreaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAthletics has made a huge impact on my college experience,\u201d Kramer said. \u201cBeing part of a team gave me a huge support system that is like a second family, and I\u2019m not sure if I would have that if I weren\u2019t on a team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, stride for stride, the student portion of Kramer\u2019s student-athlete experience at NC State has been extraordinary, too. It has encompassed a double major, hands-on learning and a life-changing summer internship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kramer graduated last May with degrees in chemical and textile engineering<\/a> \u2013 and with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average. For the second year, she achieved CoSIDA Academic All-District team honors in recognition of her outstanding accomplishments in competition and in the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ACC selected Kramer, a member of NC State\u2019s Omega Chi Epsilon and Tau Beta Pi honor societies, as its Women\u2019s Scholar Athlete of the Year and as one of several winners of $5,000 postgraduate scholarships. Recipients, the conference noted, performed with distinction in both the classroom and their respective sport, while demonstrating exemplary conduct in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now pursuing her master\u2019s degree in textile engineering, Kramer is finishing her final year of competing for NC State, with the indoor track season currently under way and outdoor competition starting in mid-March. Injuries slowed her Wolfpack career at times, including an entire year that she sat out with a medical redshirt, but she has been a solid performer in cross country and indoor and outdoor track for a top-level program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Kramer was preparing to graduate from Ardrey Kell High School in Charlotte \u2013 a three-time all-state cross country runner and eight-time conference champion \u2013 several athletics programs recruited her. She quickly favored NC State\u2019s coaches. She was uncertain, however, about her college major.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Engineering had not really been on her radar. A discussion with Brian Koehler, director of student engagement in the College of Engineering\u2019s<\/a> Office of Academic Affairs, during a campus recruiting visit convinced Kramer that it might be her calling. \u201cI ended up choosing NC State because it was the only school recruiting me that offered engineering,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It proved to be the correct choice. Real-world educational opportunities such as her senior design project, which became a valuable highlight of her NC State experience, led Kramer to develop an interest in technical textile products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n