In a star-studded field that saw almost 20 NCAA Championship spots guaranteed, sophomore Lisa Koll stood head and shoulders above the rest.

Nearly 20 NCAA automatic qualifying marks and another 50 provisional qualifying times were met at the ISU Classic in the Lied Recreational Athletic Center. But Koll’s dominance outshone all other performances in her 5000-meter win.

Running the second fastest time in the nation and breaking her own school record, Koll beat the automatic NCAA-qualifying time by more than 15 seconds. Koll’s time of 15 minutes, 52.37 seconds shattered her old school record of 16:15.57 and beat the second place finisher by more than 35 seconds.

“It feels really good,” Koll said. “To run 15:52 is way beyond my expectation, and it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be . it gives me a lot of confidence going into the Big 12 and national meet.”

Koll wasn’t the only Cyclone with an impressive showing at the ISU Classic. Lashawn Wright placed eighth out of 139 runners in the 200-meter dash. Her time of 24.48 seconds was a personal best for Wright. She followed up her strong showing in the 200 with an even more impressive 5th-place finish in the 60-meter dash.

“I was pretty happy with my prelims and semi-finals for the 60,” Wright said. “I was upset after the finals because I ran a 7.59. It’s getting so close to Big 12 [Championships], I feel like I shouldn’t go back – I need to go forward.

On the whole, Wright was pleased with her performance, and she now knows what she needs to work on.

“Overall, I think it was OK,” Wright said. “Coach has been helping with starts – that is my main thing that I have to work on.”

The ISU Classic, known as one of the more competitive indoor meets in the nation, hosted over 90 different track programs and provided the packed house plenty of fireworks and very close finishes.

There may not have been a more exciting race than the men’s 800-meter run. ISU record-holder James Galvan finished fifth in an impressive field with a time of 1 minute, 49.69 seconds. The rest of the top finishers all automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships with their times. Elias Koech of the University of Texas-El Paso won the event with a time of 1:46.77.

Distance runners Hillary Bor and Kiel Uhl both just missed provisionally qualifying for the NCAA Championships.

Bor finished the mile run with a time of 4 minutes, 4.70 seconds in a very strong field. Uhl finished second to ISU assistant coach Blake Boldon in the 5000-meter run with a time of 14 minutes, 13.37 seconds.

Head coach Corey Ihmels was pleased with the Cyclones’ performance and now says the team has seen where they are on a national level.

“A lot of good things happened over the course of the meet,” Ihmels said in a press release. “We had a lot of kids that recorded personal bests. This meet was a good indicator to let us know where we stand. We used a lot of different people in different events and we are looking forward to the performing at the conference meet in a couple of weeks.”

The Cyclones now plan to regroup and prepare for the Big 12 Championships in Lincoln, Neb. in two weeks.