The Cyclones will look to grab two wins for the price of one when they travel to Athens, Ohio for their only double-dual meet of the season Jan. 1.

Unlike a typical dual meet where there are only two possible outcomes, this double dual meet will provide Iowa State the opportunity for four potential outcomes.

The meet will also give the Cyclones a feel for how prelims of the Big 12 Championship will be handled next month. During both the meet and prelims, there will be up to five heats of each event. The top eight times of each heat will then advance to finals.

“You’re racing the person next to you, but you’re also racing the clock because you don’t know where the person eight lanes over is,” said ISU coach Duane Sorenson. “You have to just assume they’re even with you, so you have to race them to the wall that much harder.

“You could be winning your heat and win it by two seconds, but not make it to finals.”

The team feels this meet will be like another invitational, just with fewer teams competing.

“In dual-meet form it’s a little different, but the invitationals were against multiple teams, so I think this will be similar, just smaller,” said freshman Karyl Clarete. “It’s always exciting going against a conference rival.”

The Cyclones will be sending their best 18 swimmers to the meet, and the swimmers say health issues do not seem to be lingering over from these previous couple of weeks.

“I think the team will do really well,” Clarete said. “Everyone seems a lot healthier than what we were a couple weeks ago. [West Virginia and Ohio] are two pretty challenging teams, so I think everyone will step up and race really hard, including myself.”

Practice this week has been mostly focused on fixing the little things.

“We’re more focused, definitely,” said sophomore Maria Gannon. “We’ve been working on the drills, working on our turns and our hand position in the water.”

For the first time in Sorenson’s 17-year tenure as coach, the Cyclones will be flying to a meet that isn’t a head-to-head match against a conference opponent, or a training meet.

“We’re hoping for great performances, just because of the adrenaline factor. This is a great opportunity for them,” Sorenson said.

This will be the last away meet for the Cyclones, as they will attempt to finish with an unbeaten road record.