Senior Karissa Schweizer ran on the shoulder of Stanford’s Vanessa Fraser.
Turning toward the final straight away with the end of her career in sight, Schweizer passed Fraser with over 100 meters to go and unleashed her kick down the homestretch.
Schweizer crossed the finish line to win her sixth national championship in her final collegiate race, winning the 5,000-meter run with a time of 15:41.58 on the final day of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
Schweizer had faced adversity earlier in the weekend when she finished third in the 10,000-meter run.
Being in the lead pack for most of the race, she made a move to take the lead with a little over two laps to go before fading on the bell lap and being passed by Kansas’ Sharon Lokedi and Louisville’s Dorcas Wasike.
But Schweizer was able to come back two days later and brought her signature finishing kick to finish to add a national title and another All-American finish to the weekend.
Along with the performance of Schweizer, redshirt junior Gabi Jacobs also posted a top-five finish over the weekend.
Jacobs put herself in the lead with an opening throw of 55.47 meters before finishing in fifth with that same throw and adding four points to the women’s side. Jacobs finished fifth in the discus for the second straight year to earn her second All-American honor.
Schweizer and Jacobs combined to score 20 points to lead the women’s team to an 11th place finish, the highest in program history. Schweizer’s two All-American finishes scored 16 points, while Jacobs added four points.
On the men’s side, senior Rauno Liitmae competed in the men’s decathlon, finishing the first day in 21st place before dropping out on the second day of competition.
Redshirt junior Avery Carter finished 22nd in the hammer throw on the opening day of competition with a throw of 62.21 meters.
The national championship appearance ended a breakout season for Carter, who only appeared in one meet during his redshirt freshman and redshirt sophomore outdoor seasons, posting a hammer throw record of 42.85 meters before this season.
_Edited by Bennett Durando | bdurando@themaneater.com_
