The ISU swimming and diving team will prepare to face Nebraska-Omaha on Friday and Nebraska on Saturday after a long layoff from competition.

“It’s not ideal,” said coach Duane Sorenson. “But we’ve been able to do a lot of great training and do a lot of quality swimming to keep ourselves sharp.”

The Cyclone divers will see new competition for the first time since the Georgia Invitational on Jan. 3, while the swimmers will have an opponent for the first time since a 176-124 loss to rival Iowa on Dec. 9.

“I think all 23 women have been working really hard,” Sorenson said. “The last two Saturdays, we’ve simulated some meet situations where we swam a lot of relays going all out each time, really trying to get our speed going and maintain that through the course of the race.”

Senior captain Liz Holman, who finished fifth in the 1,000 freestyle against Iowa, expresses the merits of having a long break between competition.

“It’s been really good to get some long, hard training in,” Holman said. “We are coming to the end of the season, so we really have to work on making sure we have our technique down so it just comes natural at our meets.”

Sophomore Imelda Wistey, who finished first in the 100 breaststroke and was a member of the winning 200-medley relay team against Iowa, echoed Holman’s sentiments in honing technique.

“It feels really good having a break,” Wistey said. “It was a good time to come back and center ourselves and work more on little things and the finer aspects of our races.”

The Cyclones are 3-2 in dual meets with four remaining on the schedule before the Big 12 Championships.

“We want to get up and race and get ourselves ready for the Big 12 Championships,” Sorenson said. “It will be a chance to really show that all of our training is paying off.”

The meets are slated to begin at 6 p.m. Friday in Omaha, Neb., and 1 p.m. in Lincoln, Neb., on Saturday.