For most athletes, qualifying for nationals as a sophomore is just an aspiration.

For ISU sophomore runner Lisa Koll, it was a goal.

At Saturday’s NCAA Midwest Regional in Minneapolis, she accomplished that goal with a seventh-place finish and led her team to a 15th-place finish out of the 24 teams competing. Illinois won the meet, host school Minnesota finished second and the highest Big 12 finishers were Nebraska in fourth and Oklahoma State in fifth.

Koll will compete at nationals in Terre Haute, Ind., on Nov. 20.

Other than Koll qualifying for nationals, the Cyclones struggled for the most part because of the health of the team.

Iowa State has battled a rash of injuries and illnesses recently, and it caught up to the team at regionals.

“We have just been banged up a little bit the past couple of weeks,” said coach Dick Lee. “As a team, we didn’t compete as well as we had earlier in the season and part of it was because we are just not as healthy as we were earlier in the season.”

Behind Koll, the other Cyclones that figured into the scoring were freshman Kelsey Bulat (83rd), freshman Paige Ties (96th), senior Meredith McKean (102nd) and sophomore Dana Peters (130th).

Junior Mackenzie Madison, who finished 148th, and junior Dawn Caffrey, who finished 160th, rounded out the Cyclones that competed. Senior Jenny Mockler was unable to compete because of an illness, and Caffrey was hampered by a foot injury.

Lee said Bulat ran out of gas running more than she has ever before.

“It just kind of starts to catch up to you,” Lee said. “As a coach, you know that you’re not healthy, but you don’t tell the kids that.

“That was her first bad meet, and unfortunately, it was the last meet of the year.”

Koll finished in the same position on the same course that she finished a few weeks earlier in the Roy Griak Invitational. The top finishers from that meet all dropped their times, and Koll was one of them.

Koll said she was very happy with her performance.

“I think I just ran really smart and consistent,” Koll said. “I put myself in a position to make it to nationals and I just didn’t let go of that spot. I was just wanting to go there and compete with all of the people that I have been competing with all year.”