ISU Women Post All-Time Big 12 Best Finish

05.16.2010 | Track and Field

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Iowa State Big 12 400-meter hurdle champion Kiana Elahi said it best after the Iowa State women's team finished an all-time Big 12 Conference best fourth place at the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships Sunday at the Aubrey Devine Track.

"Iowa State is an up and coming program," Elahi said. "I am so proud of our team."

Elahi's winning hurdle dash and Lisa Koll running away from the field in a 1-2-3 finish in the 5,000-meter run highlighted Iowa State's final day of the competition. The ISU women rolled up 89 points, just four points behind Texas which was third with 93 points. The Cyclones' previous best was fifth-place finishes in 1998 and 2002. Texas A&M won with 157 points. Nebraska was second with 102 points.

"The best thing about the women's performance is that it was an across the board effort," Iowa State head coach Corey Ihmels said. "We scored in the relays, the hurdles, the field events and in the distance events."

The first two hours of the meet were contested in a steady rain with temperatures in the low 60's. It did not deter fast times and record-breaking performances.

Koll said that winning the 5,000-meters in 15:22.42, ahead of teammates Semahar Tesfaye (16:08.67) and Betsy Saina (16:10.69), was special because the ISU trio had also swept the top-three places in Friday's 10,000-meter run.

"To do it in my last Big 12 race and to do it with my teammates makes this so special," Koll said.

Koll set out early to leave the 5,000 field behind.

"It was really congested and bunched up, so at one point I heard (Iowa State head coach Corey Ihmels) say ?just go for it.' That is what I did."

Her winning time broke the meet record by more than 30 seconds. Koll finishes her career with nine Big 12 individual titles. All three Cyclones were under the Walton Track Record.

Elahi raced to victory charging hard toward the final hurdle to push past fellow sophomore Angelee Cooper of Texas to win in 57.40 to Cooper's 57.55.

"The finish is the best part of my race," Elahi said. "I feel so great right now."

Iowa State's women's 4 x 100 meter relay team of Monique Hawkins, Jenna Caffrey, Callan Jacobson and Lashawn Wright ran well, placing fourth in the 4 x100-meter relay.

Caffrey came back to place fifth in the 100-meter hurdles in 13.56 seconds.

"I didn't have a clean race," Caffrey said. "The conditions weren't perfect but everybody had to deal with it."

Meghan Nelson made a late move to score in the women's steeplechase, passing Angela Potrykus of Missouri to place eighth.

Erin Penticoff of Cedar Rapids had made a big move with 300 meters left and passed all but winner Sara Stoakes of Kansas State to finish second in the 800 meters in 2:08.66.

"It didn't go exactly as planned," Penticoff said. "I wanted to take the lead but was just a little far back in the pack when I started my move."

Danielle Frere of Muscatine finished seventh in the shot put.

In the men's competition, Hillary Bor, the 2009 NCAA runner-up in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, broke away from the Big 12 Championship field with four laps to go in that race Sunday, to win the event in 8:47.82. Bor was the indoor conference mile champion in a close race. That was not the case Sunday as the Cyclone pulled away from Texas Tech's Gilbert Limo, who also hails from Bor's hometown of Eldoret, Kenya.

"I went out pretty quick but I wanted to make a real big move and put some space between myself and the field. It feels great and I was happy that I pulled away from the field and controlled the race."

Ihmels lauded Bor's effort.

"Hillary had been second last year and the move he made was a statement that he was going to win it this year," Ihmels said. "Hillary has further goals this season after being second in the NCAA meet last year."

Nebraska won the men's competition with 118 points. ISU finished 12th with 39 points.

Cyclone Brandon Rooney finished third in the 1,500 meters, holding his position for most of the final lap.

"The leaders went out really quickly and that made it an honest race, not a tactical race," Rooney said. "I felt good the first three laps and didn't feel bad on the last one but I think missing a week of training earlier had an impact."

Tony Johnson cleared 6-9 on his third attempt to finish sixth in the high jump.

"I hadn't had a meet this season in which I put everything together," Johnson said. "It's kind of funny that this would happen today in the rain. There were puddles everywhere so you had to make sure you didn't slip."

Some of Iowa State's top competitors will compete in NCAA Regional competition at the end of the month.

Final Team Standings:

Men: 1) Nebraska, 118; 2) Oklahoma, 114; 3) Texas A&M, 110; 4) Texas Tech, 77; 5) Baylor, 63; 6) Colorado, 57; 7) Texas, 56; 8) Kansas, 53; 9) Oklahoma State, 47; 10) Missouri, 44; 11) Kansas State, 40; 12) IOWA STATE, 39.

Women: 1) Texas A&M, 157; 2) Nebraska, 102; 3) Texas, 93; 4) IOWA STATE, 89; 5) Texas Tech, 81.50; 6) Oklahoma, 76.50; 7) Kansas, 71; 8) Baylor, 62; 9) Kansas State, 30; 10) Missouri, 24; 11) Colorado, 20; 12) Oklahoma State, 11.

Iowa State Results:

Men:
1,500-meter run: 1) Johnathan Stublaski, Oklahoma State, 3:43.31; 3) Brandon Rooney, IOWA STATE, 3:44.62; 6) Rico Loy, IOWA STATE, 3:48.19.
3,000-meter steeplechase: 1) Hillary Bor, IOWA STATE, 8:47.82.
5,000-meter run: 1) John Kosgei, Oklahoma State, 14:05.96; 5) Kiel Uhl, IOWA STATE, 14:09.92; 13) Hillary Bor, IOWA STATE, 14:22.11; 16) Jory Zunich, IOWA STATE, 14:38.41; 20) Ben Murphy-Baum, IOWA STATE, 14:44.22; 22) Guor Marial, IOWA STATE, 14:46.13; 24) Rico Loy, IOWA STATE, 14:48.10; 30) Clayton Carper, IOWA STATE, 14:54.26; 32) Dan Fagden, IOWA STATE, 15:16.04.
4x100-meter relay: 1) Baylor, 39.36; 8) IOWA STATE, 40.96.
4x400-meter relay: 1) Texas A&M, 3:04.45; 9) IOWA STATE, 3:12.72.

High jump: 1) Paul Hamilton, Nebraska, 7-01.75; 6) Tony Johnson, IOWA STATE, 6-08.75.
Discus: 1) Mason Finley, Kansas, 197-05; 17) Mike Zika, IOWA STATE, 151-06.

Women:
100-meter hurdles: 1) Natasha Ruddock, Texas A&M, 12.89; 5) Jenna Caffrey, IOWA STATE, 13.56.
400-meter hurdles: 1) Kianna Elahi, IOWA STATE, 57.40; 8) Donnise Powell, IOWA STATE, 1:02.13.
800-meter run: 1) Sara Stoakes, Kansas State, 2:07.16; 2) Erin Penticoff, IOWA STATE, 2:08.11
3,000-meter steeplechase: 1) Emma Coburn, Colorado, 9:56.53; 8) Meaghan Nelson, IOWA STATE, 10: 39.11.
5,000-meter run: 1) Lisa Koll, IOWA STATE, 15:22.42; 2) Semehar Tesfaye, IOWA STATE, 16:08.67; 3) Betsy Saina, IOWA STATE, 16:10.69; 14) Alphine Tuliamuk, IOWA STATE, 16:49.72.
4x100-meter relay: 1) Texas A&M, 43.74; 4) IOWA STATE, 46.37.
4x400-meter relay: 1) Texas A&M, 3:31.79; 7) IOWA STATE, 3:43.42.

Shot put: 1) Karen Shump, Oklahoma, 54-08.75; 7) Danielle Frere, IOWA STATE, 49-05.75; 10) Laishema Hampton, IOWA STATE, 47-00.25; 12) Britta Christofferson, IOWA STATE, 46-08.75; 16) Hayli Bozarth, IOWA STATE, 45-00.50.
Javelin: 1) Amy Backel, Oklahoma, 182-05; 11) Mallory Henderson, IOWA STATE, 108-02.