Schweizer won her third NCAA title this year with a win in the 5,000-meter at outdoor track & field champs.
Missouri's Karissa Schweizer didn't leave any doubt in her quest for a third national title in the women's 5,000 meters at the 2017 NCAA outdoor track and field championships.
Schweizer, already the NCAA cross country individual champion last fall and the 5,000 winner at the indoor track championships, captured title No. 3 Saturday night in Eugene, Oregon. She finished first in the 5,000 in 15 minutes, 38.93 seconds. Alsu Bogdanova from Eastern Michigan finished second, more than five seconds behind Schweizer's pace.
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Schweizer became the fourth runner to win the triple crown of distance races in one collegiate season — the cross country championship and both the indoor and outdoor 5,000 — following Villanova's Jennifer Rhines (1994-95), Arizona's Amy Skieresz (1996-97) and Texas Tech's Sally Kipyego (2007-08).
Hear from @KarissaSchweiz4 moments after her 3rd NCAA title!#MIZ #TigerTough pic.twitter.com/4WSZHFt66z
— Mizzou Track & Field (@MIZ_TrackField) June 11, 2017
Schweizer pulled away from the rest of the pack with four laps to go and cruised to victory without being challenged. She gives the Tigers four All-Americans in Eugene, joining men's javelin thrower Alex Pascal (fourth place), Jamie Kempfer in the women's 10,000 meters (ninth place) and Gabi Jacobs in the women's discus (fifth place).
Schweizer finished third in the 5,000 as a sophomore last year.
"I really had to trust my coach (Marc Burns)," she told ESPN after the race. "He told me I should do that and trust my fitness. But what was going through my mind was this chase pack is coming for me. I felt like I was a scared animal running away from them."
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Mizzou's women's team finished 17th overall, the program's highest finish in team history at the NCAA meet.
This article is written by Dave Matter from St. Louis Post-Dispatch and was legally licensed via the Tribune Content Agency through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.
