COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Track & Field senior Karissa Schweizer (Urbandale, Iowa) and redshirt freshman Ja'Mari Ward (Cahokia, Ill.) were both selected for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, announced Tuesday night. Schweizer will compete in the 3000m run and 5000m run, while Ward will compete in the long jump. The meet will take place March 9-10, at Gilliam Indoor Stadium in College Station, Texas.
To qualify for the NCAA Indoor meet, a student-athlete needed to record a top-16 time/mark at any point in the indoor season. Schweizer will be making her second appearance at the NCAA Indoor meet, as she won her second national title in the 5000m run and finished runner-up in the 3000m run in 2017. Ward, the 2017 SEC Outdoor Freshman Field Athlete of the Year, will make his debut appearance at the NCAA Indoor meet.
Schweizer has followed up her 2017 junior campaign with an arguably even-better 2018 senior campaign, as the three-time National Champion enters the NCAA Indoor meet with the nation-leading times in the 3000m run and 5000m run. Schweizer began her indoor season just two weeks after recording her sixth NCAA All-America honor at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, as the Tiger senior avenged an 11th-place finish at the NCAA Cross Country meet with a first-place finish in the 5000m run at the Boston University Season Opener (Dec. 2). Schweizer won the race with a school record performance, as she recorded the fifth-fastest time in NCAA history at 15:17.31. At the Millrose Games (Feb. 3), Schweizer set the 3000m run collegiate record, as Schweizer ran a 8:41.60 in a race filled with professional runners. Her time surpassed Olympian Jenny (Berrginer) Simpson's 2009 mark of 8:42.03. The Tiger senior also clocked the fifth-fastest collegiate time in the mile run at the Columbia Challenge (Jan. 27), running a 4:27.54. All three performances were school record times.
Most recently, at the SEC Indoor Championships (Feb. 24-25), Schweizer won conference titles in the 3000m run and the distance medley relay. Schweizer set a conference meet record in the 3000m run, clocking a time of 9:00.56, while her 4:25.56 anchor leg split gave the Tigers the DMR title. Schweizer's seven career conference titles match Sabrina Dornhoefer for the most conference championships by a female in program history.
Ward, who redshirted the 2017 indoor season before joining the Tigers for a stand-out outdoor season, has returned to form for his debut indoor campaign. Ward was named the SEC Field Athlete of the Week on Feb. 20 after a school record leap in the long jump at the Missouri Collegiate Challenge (Feb. 16). Ward's mark of 7.97m (26-1.75) surpassed Mizzou's 34-year-old record of 7.91m (25-11.75), set by Yussuf Alli in 1984, and currently ranks fifth in the NCAA this season. Ward also recorded the sixth-best triple jump mark in program history at the Tyson Invitational (Feb. 10), as he jumped 15.66m (51-4.5). Ward finished fifth in the long jump at the SEC Indoor meet (Feb. 24), as he recorded a mark of 7.75m (25-5.25).
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