Schweizer hopes to construct another 'masterpiece'

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Twelve months ago, Missouri cross country coach Marc Burns was doing his best to try and keep something a secret just a little bit longer.

He knew that Karissa Schweizer was on the verge of something big.

The Tigers opened their cross country season Sept. 2 at the Hawkeye Invitational and that meant an Iowa homecoming for Schweizer, who grew up in Urbandale and attended Dowling Catholic.

"Mom and dad are like, 'Is she going to run?'" Burns remembers. "And I'm like: 'Listen: I'm not going to run her. I'm sorry. I know you could have a million people out there to watch her, but trust me. When you see her run you'll know why I didn't run her. She is so good right now I need to keep her under wraps.'"

Two weeks later, Schweizer did begin her junior cross country season at the Commodore XC Classic in Tennessee. Midway through the race, she took a wrong turn. She lost 15 seconds and possibly the course record, but still won the 5,000-meter race in 16 minutes, 46.7 seconds.

Again, the secret was not out of the bag.

Missouri then competed Oct. 1 in the Chile Pepper Festival in Arkansas. Schweizer ran 16:09.5, sprinting away from all challengers at the end and beating all of the Arkansas women.

In the aftermath, it was noted that Schweizer's time was just two seconds off Dominique Scott-Efurd's winning time in 2015. (Scott went on to win Division 1 outdoor titles in the 5,000 and 10,000 the following spring).

The secret leaked out just a bit.

At Pre-Nationals on Oct. 15, Schweizer finished fourth -- but 30 seconds behind winner Erin Finn of Michigan. It simply wasn't Schweizer's day.

No big deal. The secret was still half-buried.

Schweizer remembers Nov. 18, the night before the Division 1 Championships, her goal was to finish in the top five. She met with Burns to talk.

"He said 'You have to understand the conditions, and with this weather, anything can happen,'" she recalls. "And I thought 'Yeah. Anything can happen. Maybe it will be my day.'"

At the Nov. 19 race in Terre Haute, Ind., Schweizer found herself running near Kansas' Sharon Lokedi, the Big 12 champion, and within sight of the leaders.

"Throughout the whole race I remember not even feeling my body," Schweizer says. "I was running in the middle of the race and I thought 'What would be funny is, what if you won this? Nah, maybe not.'"

Schweizer was still there rounding the final corner and looking down a half-mile straightaway to the finish line.

"My adrenaline was pumping like crazy," she remembers. "That final stretch, passing people, I was thinking 'You can win this!' But right after crossing the finish line, I still didn't believe it."

Schweizer's parents and coach, located in a far corner of the field, didn't see the finish. They assumed she'd gotten something like third until they caught the word 'Urbandale' over the loud speaker. They began to move quickly to find out what happened.

Schweizer passed four runners in the final 400 meters and won the NCAA championship race. It was a monumental achievement for Missouri, which celebrated its first champion. POST-RACE INTERVIEW

And it was a huge moment for Schweizer, who says she had never dug so hard for anything before. 

But there had been an inkling of what was possible just five months earlier at the Division 1 Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Schweizer had kicked from 10th to third in the last lap of the women's 5,000-meter final.

That, she figured, might be the high point of her career.

"Crossing the line I remember thinking 'That's as good as it gets.' The way the race played out (to my strengths) I just got lucky and snuck in there," she says.

Beginnings

Karissa Schweizer grew up in a family of successful runners and the ability to move and race was imprinted on her DNA.

Her grandfather, Frank, was an NCAA Division 2 All-American at Minnesota State-Mankato in 1960. Then for four decades he coached cross country at Dowling Catholic.

Her parents, Mike and Kathy, were teammates at Minnesota State-Mankato. Mike, like Frank, was an All-American. Kathy was nearly at that level, too, and later gravitated to marathons.

Frank retired from Dowling Catholic in 2008 after coaching future NCAA champion Katie Flood. 

"There was a couple of studs in my time in high school," she says

Karissa's time at Dowling Catholic was successful. She won an Iowa state title in the 3,000 her freshman year -- her only state title.

She finished second in state finals (cross country or track) five times. She also finished third five times.. "I got a second to a few big names in Iowa. They'd be in the race and I just knew I was fighting for second today."

Schweizer was not discouraged. She was running 30-35 miles per week. She was having fun, and she was getting better.

She was 47th at Nike Cross Nationals her senior year.

"Honestly, throughout high school I was not frustrated," she says. "I took the seconds and thirds and was excited about the new PRs I had. When I did graduate and my brother (Ryan, now a sophomore at Notre Dame) started winning state titles, I thought 'Dang, why couldn't I have done that?'

"But I did have fun in high school running with my team."

On To Missouri

Schweizer arrived at Missouri in the midst of a coaching change.

Joe Lynn, the coach who recruited her, was gone by the summer of 2014. And Burns, who had been at Bradley, was hired.

Burns was familiar with Schweizer. Her high school coach was married to one of his fomer athletes from a previous coaching stint at Loyola (Chicago). That connection had led to an unofficial visit to Bradley, but nothing had come of it.

Schweizer considered her options when Lynn exited the program but decided that she liked the team and the school too much to change her mind.

And when Burns arrived, she liked what he had to say.

"I bought into his program and everything he was saying," Schweizer says. "In the winter (of freshman year) he says 'Yeah, you're going to be top three in the nation sometime.' And I was like 'No way. I just got (155th) in the national meet. He saw the potential."

Burns did see the potential and it didn't take long.

Missouri had a sophomore in the program, Kaitlyn Fischer, who had already qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships in 2013.

Right away, Schweizer was running well and was able to stay a little bit closer to Fischer day after day.

"Kaitlyn was at a pretty high level here and I could tell that Karissa was just scratching the surface and figuring it out," Burns says. "The second half of the season, it was just a matter of time before she put it all together."

Schweizer's talent became evident at practice.

"It was her ability to recover during workouts," Burns says. "That's what struck me first."

Burns plotted out tough workouts, sets of 1,000s at race pace and then faster. The recovery time was prescribed at two minutes.

"Forty-five seconds into recovery she's ready to go again and everyone else is still bending over their knees," he remembers.

Frank Schweizer had told Burns to be aware of it. In 42 years at Dowling Catholic, the old coach had never seen a girl recover as quickly as his granddaughter could.

Karissa earned SEC Freshman of the Year honors and then had a strong race at NCAA Midwest, where she placed seventh and earned a spot on the starting line at NCAAs. She was 14 spots ahead of Fischer.

Schweizer may not have been thrilled with 155th place at nationals, but it was a start.

During the indoor season, she ran PR times and continued to acclimate to the rigors or collegiate racing and increased mileage. She ran 4:45.02 for the mile and 9:25.31 in the 3,000.

She concluded her freshman year by placing seventh at the SEC Championships in the 5,000.

"I was happy with my freshman year," Schweizer says.

Her sophomore year got off to a rough start. She didn't qualify for the NCAA cross country final, taking 25th at regionals.

"I got sick at the wrong time and mentally I was not really dialed in like I was my freshman year," Schweizer explains. "After that season I re-evaluated and started working on the little things. I started building my confidence again through workouts."

She began to purposely eat smarter and go to sleep earlier.

And with mileage up to 50-60 per week under her legs, Schweizer began to feel stronger and was learning to tweak her mechanics to become quicker and have more punch off the ground.

"I learned how to run in college," she says. "It's totally different than high school and how I had run my entire life. I was learning how to relax in the beginning and how to use my kick. In high school, I'd just go out as hard as I could and hang on as long as I could."

Into High Gear

It was a new and improved Schweizer who showed up in the NCAA 5,000 final in 2016.

As Arkansas' Scott-Efurd put the finishing touches on her distance double, Schweizer was relaxing and then kicking to third place.

That result brought Burns' prediction to life. She had made it to the top three in the nation.

Over the summer, her coaches reinforced the belief that her third place was not a fluke. She had finished right where she belonged.

The summer of 2016 was productive. Her confidence grew. He mileage ticked up again, touching 70 miles per week.

It put Schweizer in position to contend for her first NCAA championship.

After it was over, Schweizer moved on to her next goal. At the NCAA Indoor Championships she won the 5,000 and finished second to Colorado's Dani Jones by 0.13 seconds in the 3,000.

At the NCAA Outdoor Championships, Schweizer completed the distance triple crown by winning the 5,000 in controlled fashion. She was five seconds clear at the finish line to become the first female athlete since Texas Tech's Sally Kipyego (2007-08) to win all three titles in the same school year.

"It's little goals leading up to a big goal," Schweizer says. "Trusting the process of getting stronger after each season and staying healthy to build season on season."

Schweizer extended her 2017 campaign to race the top American women in the 5,000 at the USATF Outdoor Championships in Sacramento. She finished fourth, one spot away from making the World Championships team.

At that point, there was some discussion about turning professional.

But Schweizer's commitment to her team, her role as a captain, and elevating the Missouri program, factored into her remaining in school in Columbia.

"It's been pretty incredible," says Burns. "This is my 22nd year of coaching and I'm fortunate to get somebody like this to work with. What's most enjoyable about coaching her is she's such a great kid. Through all of the success she's still humble, she's still a great teammate. Even this year, as a senior, she is probably the most involved in the recruiting process of anyone in our program.

"Think about a high schooler coming in for a visit and you've got the NCAA champion spending time walking around on a tour explaining stuff to you. That's powerful."

It's different as Schweizer enters her senior year.

There is no more aiming at the top five as a goal. There are mini goals along the way to big goals.

As Burns says, it's a brand new opportunity to create another masterpiece.

Schweizer's mileage is beginning to creep up to 80 miles per week. Season after season of healthy, sustained training has put her into a new realm.

She's the best in the country. There are no more secrets.

What if Schweizer's high school self knew what was in store?

"I wouldn't even know who I was," she says. "If someone told my high school self what happened to me, no I wouldn't have believed it. It would honestly be insane."