Big 12 Conference Honors Koll and Saina

IRVING, Texas ? The Big 12 Conference announced Thursday that Iowa State distance runners Lisa Koll and freshman Betsy Saina have been named as the 2009 Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Outstanding Performer of the Year and Freshman of the Year, respectively. The outdoor track and field postseason honors are selected by the league's head coaches.

“Obviously we're excited; it really lends itself to the direction our program is headed,” Iowa State track and field head coach Corey Ihmels said. “We are really happy for both of them to be honored for their performances. It's a tribute to the hard work and dedication that they put in to the get to the championships level.”

Koll, a junior from Fort Dodge, Iowa, is the first Iowa State female student-athlete in Big 12 Conference history to win performer of the year honors.

Koll captured two championships at the 2009 Big 12 Outdoor Conference meet. She won her third straight women's 10,000 in 36:29.47 and posted a mark of 16:33.12 to finish first in the 5,000. Koll is a five-time Big 12 champion. She is the defending NCAA 10,000-meter champion.

“Lisa Koll is really a great role model on our team,” Saina said. “(Lisa) is really putting a lot of effort into her training, that's why I am encouraging everyone on our team to train like Lisa Koll. When we are doing training, we may be going for sixty five (miles a week) and she will run seventy five. When we are going for ninety (miles a week) she is running one hundred and fifteen, which is really good. If I just follow the steps of Lisa Koll, I know that I will be successful.”

Saina, who hails from Eldoret, Kenya, is the first Cyclone to earn the Big 12's freshman superlative. In just her second appearance of her career in the 10,000, she finished second (36:34.94) behind Koll at the Big 12 Championships. Saina added another runner-up performance in the 5,000, clocking a time of 16:38.76.

Texas Tech distance phenom Sally Kipyego, a friend of Saina's, had some words of encouragement for the freshman's first conference meet.

“I knew my friend Sally Kipyego was not there because of eligibility, I knew that I just wanted to follow in her footsteps,” Saina said. “When I met with (Kipyego), she told me that she was like me when she began racing as a freshman, so I knew in my mind that in the Big 12 I was going to do well because I was following in her foot steps.”

German Fernandez (Oklahoma State) was named Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Men's Outstanding Performer and Freshman of the Year. Gary Pepin (Nebraska) and Pat Henry (Texas A&M) were selected by their peers as Men's and Women's Coaches of the Year, respectively.