Tuks' athletes proved this past weekend at the USSA Cross Country Championships at TUT that there is truth in the saying, "when the going gets tough, the tough get going."

Tuks were crowned overall champions after winning four races. Karabo Mailula and Tshepo Mhulangane were the respective winners of the women's and men's 10km events. Carmie Prinsloo won the 2km women’s race. Tuks was also the fastest in the long relay race. This is the second time in three years that Tuks has won the USSA cross-country title.

Hardcore long-distance athletes will tell you that if you really want to test yourself, go do cross country. You can be assured of being tested on your endurance. Prinsloo can attest to that after running two races in the space of 80 minutes on the first day of the championships. First the two and then the 10km.

"I gave it my all in the 2km. Getting my head around racing in 30 minutes again was a challenge. My legs felt 'dead'. However, I couldn't afford to dwell on that. It was essential to try to forget that I had already raced once. Thinking that most of the athletes I was competing against had fresh legs is a sure way to get negative. I started the race at a comfortable pace. My goal was to run, catch up, and pass the athletes one by one. It worked. I finished third.”

Prinsloo is a seasoned campaigner when it comes to winning medals for Tuks at USSA events. Earlier this year, at the Student Athletics Championship, she won the 1500 m and 5000m races. She was also part of the 4x400m relay team that won the gold.

Yet she can't help but be taken aback. She qualified in the 1500m and 5000m to represent South Africa at this year's World Student Games. But due to an administrative error, she couldn't. What made it worse was that this was the fourth time she had missed participating in the World Students' event.

"I was seriously thinking about packing up my running shoes for good. I actually did. I even informed my coach that I was done. It felt like it was time for me to start doing something else. Perhaps triathlon. Fortunately, the urge to start running overwhelmed me again after a few days."

Her big goal is to qualify for the 1500 meters for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next year. According to her, it is an achievable goal if she trains properly.

"My speed is not bad. The mistake I made this year was training like a sprinter in the gym with too heavy weights instead of doing more repetitions with lighter weights. As for next year, my coach, the biokinetist who works with me, and I must collaborate to ensure that I train properly. It's high time I started running personal best times again."

"From a pure athletics point of view, it was a mistake, but not from an academic point of view. My matric marks were not good enough to get selected at Tuks to study Speech-Language Pathology. In America, I aced my studies, which is why I am now studying at Tuks.

"The time in America also taught me the value of cross-training when you are injured. Shortly after I returned to South Africa, I suffered an injury, but I didn't lose my fitness because I knew exactly what to do to recover."

Prinsloo is open about her decision to study at the University of Arkansas after school.