Missouri
NCAA Regional Championships
Mizzou Women's Cross Country Wins NCAA Midwest Regional, Schweizer Captures Individual Title
11/11/2016 3:25:00 PM | Cross Country
Four Tigers earn All-Midwest Regional honors as Mizzou captures first regional title since 2004
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Mizzou Cross Country captured its first regional championship in 12 years as the women's team won the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship on Friday in Iowa City, Iowa. With the win, the women's team qualified for the NCAA Championships as a team for the first time since 2004, the same year Mizzou last won the Midwest Region. Junior Karissa Schweizer (Urbandale, Iowa) won the women's individual 6,000m championship, becoming the first Tiger to win a regional meet since Amanda Bales took first in 2003.
The Tigers improved drastically from a year ago where the women finished 12th at the NCAA Midwest Regional Meet on Nov. 13, 2015, in Lawrence, Kan.
"This is a historic day for our program," said head coach Marc Burns. "I am so proud of this team. They executed the game plan perfectly and believed in themselves all the way. We have been flirting with this type of performance all year and we finally put it together today. We hit on all cylinders and it was fun to watch."
Schweizer, the SEC Women's Runner of the Year, earned a spot on the All-Midwest Regional Team for the third straight year with the first-place finish, and was joined by three other Tigers who posted top-25 finishes. Junior Jamie Kempfer (Festus, Mo.), senior Nicole Mello (Columbia, Mo.) and senior Teylar Adelsberger (O'Fallon, Mo.) all earned the honor for the first time in their careers, finishing fifth, 20th and 21st, respectively.
"Karissa was very poised up front. She was patient and dropped the hammer at just the right time," Burns said. "What a fantastic finish to win the individual and team title. Jamie had another spectacular day finishing fifth and continues to show that she belongs at the front of any race. Our two seniors came up big with Nicole and Teylar running in the lead pack the whole way. I am so happy for them to experience this in their final cross country season."
Five of Mizzou's seven women runners set 6K personal-records on the day, led by Schweizer's time of 19:54.4. Kempfer crossed at 20:17.9, while Mello finished at 20:44.3 and Adelsberger at 20:45.7. In just the third collegiate 6K race of her career, redshirt freshman Jordyn Kleve (Urbandale, Iowa) finished fifth for Mizzou and 36th overall with a personal-record time of 21:08, nearly a full minute faster than her previous-best time of 22:02, set a the Bradley Classic on Oct. 14.
On the men's side, redshirt senior Drew White (Crystal City, Mo.) and senior Ollie Lockley (Colby, Isle of Man) paced Mizzou as the Tigers finished 10th overall, one spot better than their 11th place finish in 2015. White finished 32nd with a time of 31:01.2, while Lockley finished 36th with a personal-record time of 31:05.3, more than a minute faster than his previous best time of 32:15.0.
The Mizzou women will now race in a field of 31 teams at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., on Nov. 19. It will be the first time the Tigers have raced in the meet as a team since 2004, when Mizzou took 11th overall. The Tigers last All-American (top-40 finish) was in 2003, when Bales finished 23rd overall.
For all the latest on Mizzou Cross Country and Track & Field, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (MIZ_TrackField).
Women's Results (6,000m)
Team – 1st (83 pts, 1-5-20-21-36-56-190)
1. Karissa Schweizer, 19:54.4 // 5. Jamie Kempfer, 20:17.9 // 20. Nicole Mello, 20:44.3 // 21. Teylar Adelsberger, 20:45.7 // 36. Jordyn Kleve, 21:08.5 // 56. Kaitlyn Fischer, 21:25.7 // 190. Ellyn Atkinson, 23:20.1
Men's Results (10,000m)
Team – 10th (333 pts, 32-36-78-89-98-120-146)
32. Drew White, 31:01.2 // 36. Ollie Lockley, 31:05.3 // 78. Zach Cook, 31:58.1 // 89. Sheldon Keence, 32:10.4 // 98. Michael Widmann, 32:17.1 // 120. Luca Russo, 32:43.8 // 146. Marc Dubrick, 33:23.5
