It was an event almost seven months in the making, but for Iowa State’s Lisa Koll, the wait was worth it.

Koll paced the field in the women’s 3,000-meter run Saturday to give the marquee performance of the Iowa State Open. She not only won the race going wire-to-wire, but she set track, meet and school records in the process.

“It feels so good to race,” said Koll, who redshirted during the cross country season, after her record-breaking performance. “During cross country I would say ‘Oh, I wish I could race and see where I am.’ But the patience was worth it — it paid off.”

Koll admitted she may have come out of the gate faster than she had wanted, but since the 5k has been her primary focus, she had plenty of gas left to finish off the race.

“I go by feel a lot when I race,” Koll said. “I had a goal coming in, but as the race progresses you sometimes have to change your mindset.”

The performance by Koll brought a buzz into the Lied Recreation Athletic Center late in the proceedings Saturday and brought rave reviews from all of the Cyclone coaching staff.

“Lisa’s in a league of her own right now,” head coach Corey Ihmels said. “She looks great, 9:09.92 [Koll’s record time] is a pretty remarkable time in itself, but to do it by herself like she did today is very impressive.”

Four other Cyclone women finished inside the top 10 in the 3k alongside Koll, including senior Grace Kemmey, who finished third.

Koll and the other distance runners were trying to match very impressive performances from the Cyclone throwers, men and women alike.

Sophomore Britta Christofferson and freshman Danielle Frere finished second and third, respectively in the women’s shot put, while sophomore Luke Pinkelman and senior Zac Brouillette ended up first and second for the men.

“Danielle and Britta did okay, but I felt like the women shot putters could have done a little better,” throwers coach John Dagata said. “The men’s shot putters did great. Luke had an amazing day, he’s close to doing something really big.”

The women threw without their only senior, Amy Waggoner, who did not participate Saturday because of a lingering illness. Waggoner did get second in the weight throw on Friday, which teammate Leishema Hampton won.

The other senior Brouillette started his weekend with a win in the men’s weight throw with a distance of 19.92 meters, and followed that up with a second-place finish in the shot put.

Christofferson managed a best of 14.3 meters in the women’s shot put just a few hours after struggling to a ninth-place finish in the weight throw.

“Our coaching staff on the throws didn’t do a good job getting Britta ready,” Dagata said. “We’re giving her mixed messages. She’ll be fine, we have a long way to go.”

The final highlight of the Iowa State Open came very late in the day on Saturday when the ISU women took part in the 4×400-meter relay. Junior Lashawn Wright took the final handoff in second place from Jenna Caffrey, but fought back to pass UNI’s Ali Selenke down the stretch for the win. Caffrey also won the 60-meter hurdles earlier in the day.

“We’re very proud of the effort,” sprints coach Nate Wiens said after the race. “One of the biggest things that surprised me was the way our women’s four-by-four went out there and got after it. There were a couple times UNI was pressing, they pressed Lashawn on the fourth leg and she just ran her race.”

Ihmels was less enthused about the distance runners.

“I had hoped we’d run a little faster and had a few more guys up there at the top, ”Ihmels said. “It was a good start, but not a great start. We’ve got a lot of work to do from this point forward.”

All-in-all, the Cyclones racked up 48 top-ten finishes, including five in the women’s 3k and four in men’s 3k.

“Am I satisfied? No. But am I excited about where we can go? Yes,” Ihmels said.

Top Cyclones results from the ISU open

Women’s weight throw

1 Hampton, Laishema 17.14m

2 Waggoner, Amy 16.87m

Men’s weight throw

1 Brouilette, Zac 19.92m

Women’s high jump

T2 Synacek, Tiffanie J1.68m

Women’s shot put

2 Christofferson, Britta 14.30m

3 Frere, Danielle 14.00m

Men’s shot put

1 Pinkelman, Luke 17.21m

2 Brouilette, Zac 16.57m

Women’s 60 meter hurdles

1 Caffrey, Jenna 8.71

Men’s 60 meter

hurdles

3 Parker, Eric 8.01

Women’s 600 yard run

1 Elahi, Kianna 1:24.15

Women’s 3000 meter run

1 Koll, Lisa 9:09.92

3 Kemmey, Grace 9:56.65

Men’s 3000 meter run

3 Marial, Guor 8:16.22

Women’s 1000 meter run

1 Penticoff, Erin 2:59.94

Men’s 1000 meter run

3 Williams, Ryan 2:29.81

Women’s 4×400 relay

1 Iowa State ‘A’ 3:51.00 1

1) Hawkins, Monique

2) Elahi, Kianna

3) Caffrey, Jenna

4) Wright, Lashawn