After a star leaves, this Mizzou runner from Blue Springs wants to take her place

Even on days she doesn’t have a cross-country meet, freshman Tori Findley wakes up racing. Her alarm blares at 5:30 a.m., and she’s usually out of her dorm room within 10 minutes. She beats the sun to 6 a.m. practice.

Findley, a Blue Springs South alum, joins Mizzou’s cross country team as the state’s reigning Gatorade cross-country athlete of the year. She is part of a recruiting class packed with in-state talent, including her roommate, former Park Hill South standout Emma Roth.

“We’ve really gotten to a point where we’ve been able to attract the top kids from Missouri or at least be in the mix,” Tigers coach Marc Burns said. “I think that they’ll find that they want to be apart of it, that they want to stay home and build something special right here.”

This year’s recruiting class has good looked good so far. At the Brooks Twilight Classic, the Tigers’ first meet of the year, Findley finished seventh — third best on the team. Three Mizzou freshmen finished in the Top 10.

Findley said she didn’t feel pre-race jitters at her first meet, and she ran in a pack with two other Mizzou runners. The trio crossed the finish line within a second of each other, which marked a change for Findley.

“In high school it was normally just me,” she said. “They were like, ‘Go run, go try to win.’”

Now, Findley has teammates with her speed.

The freshman joins Missouri’s team during a time of transition. For the first time since 2013, Karissa Schweizer won’t be lining up with the Tigers. The six-time NCAA champion exhausted her eligibility in the spring, and she signed a professional contract with Nike. Findley, who cites Schweizer as someone she admires, is one of the runners hoping to fill the void.

“Her workouts have really stood out to me and reminded me a little bit of myself as a freshman,” said Schweizer, who is working as a volunteer assistant coach with the Tigers. “Just that eagerness and wanting to always be with that top group ... is really good to see from a coaching standpoint.”

Schweizer’s rapid improvement in college helped draw Findley to Columbia. The former Missouri star didn’t start in the Tigers’ fastest training group her first year on campus, and neither did Findley. After a week, though, the freshman is running with the team’s top athletes.

At Blue Springs South, Findley competed on four varsity sports teams — cross country, basketball, soccer and track. She managed to run track and play soccer in the spring. Findley chose to drop basketball and soccer after her sophomore year, but the sports ensured she didn’t grow tired of running in high school.

“To be able to dabble in different things and use different muscle groups and showcase different skill sets and abilities, I definitely think that is a key to really staying in love with the sport,” said Todd Findley, her father.

Findley finished third Friday at the Illinois State Invitational, and she said the team hopes to qualify for the NCAA Championships in November. The freshman could be part of the core to make that happen.

“The great ones look the mundane things look really easy even though they’re not,” Burns said. “And she’s starting to make things really look easy.”

This story was originally published September 18, 2018 at 11:49 AM.