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50 years of Title IX at Iowa State: Lisa (Koll) Uhl’s amazing NCAA double capped a record-setting career
Star distance runner and 2012 Olympian won 5K and 10K titles in 2010 NCAA meet
Iowa State's Lisa Koll (now Lisa Uhl) celebrates as she wins the 5, 000 meters during NCAA Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore., on June 11, 2010.She also won the 10,000 at the meet. (Associated Press)
Editor’s note: This is fourth in a series counting down the Top 10 moments in Iowa State Cyclones women’s athletics history in the days leading up to the 50th anniversary of Title IX on Thursday.
AMES — Lisa (Koll) Uhl rolled the dice and dug deep.
Iowa State’s star distance runner and 2012 Olympian yearned to finish her sterling collegiate career with a rare “double” win in the 5,000- and 10,000-meter races at the NCAA Championships, so as she laced up her spikes as a Cyclone one last time in 2010, she was more worried about strength and endurance than time.
“It's going to be quite a task to try and get them both,” Uhl told The Gazette at the time. “I figure it's my last NCAA meet, so I've got to take a shot.”
The former Fort Dodge standout squarely landed both, becoming just the third female athlete to win both events in the same NCAA Outdoor Championships meet.
Few were surprised.
Uhl already had secured two NCAA titles, so the “double” win simply capped a record-setting and decorated collegiate career — and rightly sits at No. 2 in our countdown of top moments in ISU women’s sports history since the adoption of Title IX 50 years ago.
She was inducted into the ISU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2020, but the ceremony was delayed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I had a core group of people with me at Iowa State who had the same goals as me,” Uhl said in a news release at the time. “Although it was a big transition, it was so much fun. I loved every second of it and have so many great memories.
“I can’t put into words how much this means to me. Iowa State did so much for me.”
Uhl, in turn, broke the mold. She won the Honda award, which honors the nation’s top track and field athlete, after her senior season and competed in the 2012 London Olympics before embarking on a five-year professional career.
Uhl remains the Cyclones’ record-holder in both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters.
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