DES MOINES, Iowa — It’s almost time for the Drake Relays, and it will be a homecoming for two star Iowa runners. 

Urbandale native Karissa Schweizer is returning to the blue oval after coming off the 2024 Paris Olympics where she finished 9th in the 10,000m and 10th in the 5,000m. She also competed at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. 

Shelby Houlihan, a Sioux City native and 1,500m American record holder has momentum after coming off a four-year doping ban. Last month she made her return winning silver in the 3,000m race at the World Indoor Championship.

They’ve competed all across the world on some of the sports’ biggest stages, and yet, there’s nothing like home.

“It’s going to be nice to have that home, hometown feel, and I get to stay with my family,” Schweizer said. “I feel like I haven’t been back in probably, I think six years maybe, and every year I’m just looking and I’m like, does Drake fit in my schedule this year? I’ve been trying to come back for a while and I’m just really happy that it worked out.”

“Of all of the tracks that I’ve gotten, had the privilege to run on in my career, I think this is still my favorite track to run on,” Houlihan said. “Just the crowds are awesome, the atmosphere is cool, and you can really run fast. If the if the weather cooperates, hopefully … but even if it doesn’t, there’s still some fast times that can come out of it.”

They’ve both competed at Drake Stadium several times throughout their running careers. High school memories come rushing back for them.

“Obviously, Drake Relays holds a special place in my heart being, you know, I raced there through high school. That was like the meet such a cool meet. And I always want to go,” Houlihan said.

“Wow, what a perfect full circle moment, an opportunity to come back and with the home crowd. I’ve never done the Grand Blue Mile either,” Schweizer said. “Hometown feel and I get to stay with my family. So it’s just like a nice break from training and get to like see loved ones and then also get to race.”

Karissa’s family will be hosting several of her teammates at their house during the races. Her dad calling it the “Nike athlete house.”

Down the street is much closer to watch her this time than Paris this past summer.

“I think what’s going to hit me pretty hard is when she was in high school and she was running at the Drake Relays, you know a part of you starts thinking about, you start dreaming about her running at something and you never really think it’s going to happen,” Mike Schweizer said. “And then I’m sitting in Paris this year and I you know, I’m getting a little choked up, and you watch her run and you’re like, wow, this is it. She’s here at the Olympics. It was very similar to the Drake track. You have 16,000 or something, and when it gets full on a Saturday, there’s nothing better for a track meet than Drake Relays.”

Both Houlihan and Schweizer will run in two races, one road, one on the track. Both shorter distances than they’re used to. 

One of those races is the Women’s Invitational Mile. It’s very likely one of these runners could break Francie Larrieu’s 50 year old record she set in 1975 at 4:40.2.

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