50 years of Title IX at Iowa State: Cyclones once dominated women’s cross country

Editor’s note: This is second 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 — They went four for four.

That’s how successful Iowa State’s women’s cross country teams were in terms of national championships in the first four years of the program’s existence.

The Cyclones swept four Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) crowns from 1975-78 — and Peg Neppel-Darrah became the first ISU women in any sport to claim a national title in 1975.

A dynasty had begun, which is why the team’s towering early achievements check in at No. 4 on our Top 10 countdown (in no particular order) chronicling noteworthy figures and moments in ISU women’s sports.

Six years after the team’s initial success on the national stage, Dorthe Rasmussen joined Neppel-Darah as an AIAW champion. But times were changing across women’s sports. The NCAA held its first women’s championships in the fall of 1981. ISU chose to remain under the AIAW umbrella and added another team title the same year. The Cyclones have finished among the top 10 in cross country national meets 13 times, most recently in 2021 when Cailie Logue and company helped them place ninth.

Neppel-Darrah set numerous world records throughout her illustrious, but tragically short career. The Dolliver native died of cancer at the age of 28, but her legacy lives on at ISU and across women’s sports. She was, in short, a trailblazer.

“Peg was an outstanding athlete whose accomplishments not only placed Iowa State University's women's cross country and track in the national spotlight but through her athletic achievements, she helped to bring recognition and respect to women’s intercollegiate athletics in its formative years,” then-ISU athletics director Lou McCullough said after Neppel-Darrah's death.

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