Editor’s note: Lisa Koll won the first women’s track and field championship of any kind since the 1991 season and the first for the outdoor program since 1984. She also broke the ISU and American collegiate record in the 10k, making her season one of the most impressive performances in ISU track and field history.

Lisa Koll started the fall of 2007 looking to be an improved cross-country athlete. 

She had made it through the previous season as an All-American performer, finishing 36th at the National Championship in 2006. For Koll, that wasn’t good enough.

Koll and her coach, Corey Ihmels, revisited her training regimen entering the indoor track and field season, and began to see results instantly.

She became a standout, setting school records in both the 5,000- and 3,000-meter competitions.

 At the Big 12 Indoor Championships, she won the 5,000-meter competition and was the runner up in the 3,000-meter event. She then went on to give a second-place effort at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 5k.

The magical run began three weeks later, however, when she kicked off the outdoor season at the Stanford Invitational.

Koll entered the meet in California as a sophomore trying to make her mark, but left as the fastest American collegiate athlete to ever run the 10,000-meter race.

Her time — 32:11.13 — was more than eight seconds faster than the previous American record and was nearly 10 seconds faster than her goal for the race.

“She went to Stanford and set the world on fire,” Ihmels said. “That kind of changed things for her, and it took her to a whole new level of what she thought she was capable of doing.”

Koll agreed that since her performance at Stanford, she has been much more confident in her training and in her races. However, she also said that with that confidence came much higher expectations.

“If people have high expectations of you, it’s because you’ve done well in the past,” Koll said with a grin. “Expectations are a good thing for people to have.”

Koll took her newfound success to the Big 12 Championships, and she won her second consecutive Big 12 title in the 10k, becoming just the second Big 12 athlete to achieve such a feat. At the meet, she also was runner up in the 5,000-meter event.

Then, just three weeks following the outstanding Conference Championship performance, Koll set out to tackle her second NCAA Championship meet.

This meet was different than the first. This time, Koll had confidence and expectations. This time, she was the fastest American collegian to ever run the 10k. This time, the championship was held at Drake Stadium, about 90 miles from Koll’s hometown, Fort Dodge.

The eventual champion ran with the pack for the first 25 laps of the race, but took the lead on lap 26 and never looked back.

Koll ran to a 32:44.95 time, shattering the Drake Stadium record that had stood since 1988 and beating the rest of the field by nearly a minute, lapping almost all of her competitors.

“It’s a chance that I’m not going to get ever again,” Koll said. “Everything just fell into place and it was really perfect.”

Koll’s title was the first for the ISU women since 1991, topping off a season that was one of the greatest in Iowa State’s prestigious track and field history.

“Our tradition is pretty steep, but she’s in the same paragraph [with some of the greatest],” Ihmels said. “By the time she’s done, you’re going to have to mention her along with some of them.”

Koll said she was overwhelmed by everything that transpired after her championship run, and doesn’t think she took enough time to enjoy her moment.

She still lights up when asked about her outstanding season of a year ago, but when she’s asked to recall how she feels about it, she’s still unsure how it all happened.

“As great as it was, it’s not the end all, and I’m still looking forward to the future,” said Koll — who still has a full season of eligibility in cross country and indoor and outdoor track. “It will happen again, and things will get better.”