Senior Karissa Schweizer continued her postseason dominance Friday morning by winning her second-straight midwest regional title in Ames, Iowa.
Schweizer paced the 6K race with a time of 19:50.9, which was over 20 seconds faster than second-place finisher Sharon Lokedi from Kansas. Schweizer’s time was also faster than her time of 19:54.4 at last year’s regionals.
Schweizer and redshirt senior Megan Cunningham, who finished 12th, both earned All-Midwest Regional honors for the Tigers and led the team to a fourth-place finish at the event.
After being forced to drop out of the Southeastern Conference championship on Oct. 27 due to a dislocated shoulder, Cunningham broke her personal record of 20:50.9 from the Pre-National Invitational with a time of 20:29.9.
Friday marked the second-straight top-four regional finish for the women’s team after it won the regional championship last season.
With the fourth-place finish, Missouri will not receive an automatic bid to the national championships on Nov. 18 and will have to wait and see if it receives an at-large berth.
Unofficial calculations have the Tigers in the field, but official at-large berths won’t be announced until Saturday.
As a repeat regional champion, Schweizer will qualify individually to the national championships regardless.
A breakout performer for the women was redshirt sophomore Sophia Racette. Racette was the third-place runner on the Tigers with her 64th-place finish.
Racette’s time of 21:22.6 was 38 seconds faster than her time of 22:00.6 at the SEC championship two weeks ago, where she placed sixth on the women’s team and 53rd overall.
Behind Racette was senior Jamie Kempfer. The returning All-American finished 67th with a time of 21:25.4 in her second full race for the Tigers this season.
On the men’s side, redshirt sophomore Thomas George earned All-Midwest Regional honors with a 15th-place finish with a time of 29:32.6 in the 10K race. George led the Tigers to a ninth-place team finish in their final race of the season.
Following George were redshirt senior Marc Dubrick and redshirt junior Evan Schulte. Dubrick ended his career with a 38th-place finish and a time of 30:00.2 while Schulte finished 56th with a time of 30:16.3.
Next up, Schweizer will look to defend her national title at the NCAA National championship on Nov. 18 at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Kentucky.
_Edited by Eli Lederman | elederman@themaneater.com_
