COLUMBIA, Mo. –Mizzou Track & Field senior Karissa Schweizer (Urbandale, Iowa) has been named the Southeastern Conference Women's Runner of the Week, announced Tuesday. Schweizer's remarkable performance in the mile run at the Columbia Challenge (Jan. 27) gave her the nation's top honor, as the Tiger senior smashed the school record en route to the fastest collegiate time this season. The award is Schweizer's second of the day, as she was also named the USTFCCCA Division I Women's National Athlete of the Week earlier today.
In a race full of professional runners at The Armory, Schweizer crossed the finish line third overall at 4:27.54, a full seven seconds ahead of Laura Roxberg's previous school record mark of 4:34.59, which was set in 2013. Schweizer's time is the fastest by a collegiate runner this season, the third-fastest in the world this season, and the fourth-fastest collegiate time ever recorded by an NCAA runner.
Schweizer also currently holds the world's fastest time this season in the 5000m run, after she clocked a time of 15:17.31 in a school-record performance at the BU Season Opener (Dec. 2, 2017). The performance came off the heels of an 11th-place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships just two weeks prior (Nov. 18), and also netted Schweizer National Athlete of the Week honors. Schweizer's time in her BU Season Opener victory is the fifth-fastest indoor 5,000m run time in NCAA history, and is just five seconds behind the top mark of 15:12.22, set by Providence's Emily Sission in 2015.
The award is Schweizer's third SEC weekly honor this season, after being named the SEC Runner of the Week on Sept. 19 and Oct. 17 during the cross country season. She was also named the SEC Cross Country Runner of the Year for the second straight season following her second SEC Cross Country title.
During the track season, Schweizer looks to continue building her legacy as one of the top student-athletes in Mizzou Athletics history. Her impressive resume already includes six All-America honors, three national titles and five conference titles. The Urbandale, Iowa, native is the only female in Mizzou history to win multiple NCAA titles, while her six All-America honors rank tied for third in women's program history and tied for fifth overall. Her five conference titles are tied for the fourth-most in women's program history.
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