LAWRENCE, Kan.—Iowa State sophomore Lisa Koll led the way for the women's cross country team with a seventh-place finish at the 2006 Big 12 Cross Country Championships held at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence, Kan., Friday.
“Lisa ran a great race,” said women's head coach Dick Lee. “She had a chance to sneak into a higher spot, but overall she ran a really gutsy race. Conditions were a little tough out there, everything was a little sloppy from the rain, but she ran right through it.”
Koll, who finished 27th last year in the competition, had a time of 21:22.88 on the 6K course. Koll was able to stay in the top ten pack throughout the entire race. Coming in second for the Cyclones was Kelsey Bulat with a 35th-place finish.
“I've had continuous improvement all year and it was definitely a lot better than I ran last year,” Koll said. “I think I ran a really smart race. I went out and held my ground while a lot of others started real fast and fell back and others didn't start out fast and then came up in the end. I stayed in pretty much the same spot the whole race and stayed consistent.”
As a team, the Cyclones finished in ninth-place overall with 247 points. The Colorado women earned their 10th team title with a team score of 45 points. They have now won 10 out of 11 Big 12 cross country team titles.
“Team wise we didn't fair as well as we would have liked to,” Lee said. “We have some girls who have been sick and still are sick. We were hoping they would be a little stronger today, but it just didn't happen. We'll just keep looking forward to regionals now and getting those girls healthier and ready to go.”
The ISU women will be back in action in two weeks at the Midwest regional meet to be held in Minneapolis, Minn. Check out www.cyclones.com for more information.