Despite losing its first conference meet last Saturday at Missouri, the Iowa State Swimming and Diving team seemed optimistic about the meets coming up on the schedule.

“I’m very pleased with the way our team went to Missouri and performed very well,” head coach Duane Sorenson said.

The Cyclones had a handful of swimmers that placed well, one including junior Abby Glaser who picked up her 13th win of the season. “I thought that everyone really stepped up and swam well and really worked well as a team,” Glaser said. “Our distance swimmers [Jenny Vondenkamp and Megan Thompson] were right there in the 1,000-meter. Jeli [Nixt]’s 100 breaststroke, Frances [Calzada’s] 50 Freestyle, and Lindsey Behrens were all significant as well.”

Although much of the team swam well, Sorenson felt the Cyclones made one key mistake.

“The only area that could’ve been worked on was our aggressiveness and being able to go wall to wall with no problem,” Sorenson said.

Although the Cyclones lost, there are several things the team believes it can learn.

“A few things that we as a team can take out of this are that we all have a common goal at all meets. We were all there for each other, and we have to remember what the competition was like,” Glaser said.

The main goal for Iowa State all year has been to peak at the right time and the right time is the Big 12 Championship. Though this loss may be seen as a minor setback as they work for this goal, the swim team sees that as a chance to better themselves.

“We have so much more in us, especially as we get rested up down the stretch,” Glaser said. The Cyclones should get plenty of rest as they prepare for that meet as they have two and a half weeks from their last regular season meet up to the Big 12 Championship.

“We are going to have to be held down to keep in the excitement because we get so excited for conference,” said Glaser.

The diving squad is working towards the Big 12 Championship as the season wears down. At Missouri, Tien Tran placed third in the 1-meter followed by fellow teammates Kali Fryklund in fifth and Abby Christensen in sixth place.

Tran also finished third in the 3-meter competition, while freshman Jenn Botsch took fifth.