With the intrasquad meet under their belts, the Iowa State swim and dive team is preparing for their first meet against Nebraska on Saturday.

The Cardinal and Gold meet was a chance for the team to see where they were at for timing, but the first meet against another team will begin to show how this team does against competition.

“I think we’re in pretty good position,” said head coach Duane Sorenson. “I expect a real competitive meet like we’ve had in past years, it’s a good starting point more than anything else.”

Although the competition has been close in past meets, Sorenson said Nebraska has been beating Iowa State the past few years.

“They’ve had outstanding divers,” Sorenson said. “We can race them swimming-wise, but then diving they beat us pretty badly.”

Sorenson said if the Cyclones can compete with Nebraska in diving, then it should be a good and close meet.

Diving coach Jeff Warrick feels his divers are ready for this meet.

“My expectations are it’s our first real meet of the season, but I think we’re ready,” Warrick said. “I just want to see them perform like we have been in practice right now.”

Since it is the first real meet of the season, both coaches say they aren’t doing anything different for preparation that they have been doing since the beginning of the season.

“We’ve been preparing the whole time for this meet,” Warrick said. “We’re just going to continue to take steps forward.”

Sorenson said this meet is going to be closer to the intrasquad meet in terms of importance, more so using it as quality swim than a meet.

“It’s more excitement because of the team and the points,” Sorenson said. “It’s representing Iowa State. It’s just going to be interesting to see how our newcomers perform.”

This meet will also include more events for swimming and diving. For swimming, that includes the 200’s of the strokes — so the butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke as well as the 1,000 freestyle. For diving, it will be more dives than the intrasquad meet, of the 1 meter and 3 meter. 

Sophomore swimmer Elynn Tan says she is excited for the upcoming meet at Nebraska this weekend. Tan is coming off a great freshman season after earning All-Big 12 Second-Team in two events as well as ISU Newcomer of the Year.

“Our team has been racing really well in the intrasquad,” Tan said. “I’m really excited to see how we all are going to race out there and I’m ready for it.”

Like most athletes, Tan said she really just wants to get her personal best for times. She says it’s what she is always aiming for.

“I’m looking forward to race Nebraska at their place,” Tan said. “I’ve never done that before, I’ve never seen their pool so I’m excited for that too and to start racing.”

Since Tan was a freshman just last year, she knows more closely what this year’s freshmen are going through while getting ready for their first real collegiate meet against another team than some of the upperclassmen may remember.

“I feel like they’re doing a really good job,” Tan said. “It’s always fun to go into the first meet of the season and to get it started.”

The Iowa State Cyclones will face off against Nebraska at noon this Saturday at Nebraska. Their next home meet will be the following Friday, Oct. 25.