Four events on the ISU men’s and women’s track teams were among the qualifiers announced Monday night for the NCAA Indoor Championships.

The men’s 4×400-meter relay team of Gabe Kimpson, Elijah Braimah, Jared Graham and Jared Lewis qualified, and three members of the women’s team qualified individually – Agata Kosuda in the triple jump, Lisa Koll in the 5,000-meter run and Rebecca Williams in the 60-meter hurdles. The NCAA meet is on Friday and Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark.

The 4×400 team solidified its qualifying spot Saturday at the last-chance qualifying meet at the Lied Recreational Athletic Center. The runners sat in 11th place in the nation coming into the meet, but knew they would have to improve on their time to avoid losing ground. They did that by setting a school record with a run of 3 minutes, 7.39 seconds.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Braimah, a senior from Baton Rouge, La. “There’s something about making it my last indoor season. I don’t even know how to describe it.”

Kimpson led off the race, and he and Braimah kept the Cyclones in a close third after the first two legs.

Graham took over and grabbed the lead about halfway through his run, and Lewis finished it off under heavy pressure with the Oral Roberts team chasing him. Jubilation followed as the rest of the team swarmed around an exhausted Lewis in celebration.

“We were all yelling so loud, and when he passed the finish line, I was just looking at the clock,” Braimah said. “That’s the happiest I’ve been in my life.”

Going into the meet, Braimah said the team didn’t have the motivation it needed until coming together as a group.

“We all met up on Wednesday night to pray about it, talk about it, stuff like that,” Braimah said. “We still weren’t feeling it Saturday morning in the locker room, so we got together and prayed about it again.”

Also facing adversity was Kosuda in the triple jump. After her first two jumps were scratched last Saturday, she needed to have a good jump just to make finals. Her jump of 12.62 meters was enough to get her to the final round, where she hit 13.26 to win the event and score a qualifying mark.

“There was a lot of pressure on her just to get a mark to get an opportunity to have three more jumps,” women’s track coach Dick Lee said. “She’s probably in the best shape she’s been in since she’s been here.”

Kosuda is no stranger to competing for National Championships. She qualified in the triple jump for the 2004 NCAA Outdoor Championships, and also won National Junior Indoor and Outdoor Championships in Poland.

Lisa Koll won the 5,000 run, but needed to do more than win to qualify.

Koll needed to run a strong time and she did, beating her school record with a time of 16:15.65. Since there were only three runners in the race, Koll found herself racing the clock as she was solidly in the lead throughout.

“I just told myself it was me and that clock. Knowing it was my last shot to go to nationals for the year was motivation enough in itself,” she said. “I felt really good and relaxed, really comfortable. I knew I could do it.”

Koll qualified in the fall for the NCAA Cross Country Championships, but said qualifying for indoor track was harder.

“It’s a numbers game. You never know if you’re going to make it or not,” she said. “I think the racing will be a lot different, because for cross country you can just go out and fight for it, whereas there are only 16 people running around that track with me, and they are the best of the best.”

Qualifying in the 60 hurdles for the women was Rebecca Williams, who didn’t have to compete last weekend after earning a qualifying time en route to winning the Big 12 Championship on Feb. 24.

“It meant a lot,” Williams said. “I’m a fifth-year senior, and I’ve never been able to place higher than sixth in the Big 12s, so to win it, it really helped my confidence a lot.”

Williams also has previous NCAA meet experience, qualifying for the Outdoor Championships in the 100 hurdles in 2003 and 2004.