Coming off a successful preseason intrasquad meet last weekend, the ISU swimming and diving team looks to continue to improve over the weekend.

The Cyclones host Friday’s Big 12 Relays at 9 a.m. in Beyer Hall and then host Texas A&M in a dual meet at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Friday’s Big 12 Relays will give the team a good chance to see the other competition the conference will bring this season, as well as take a look at their own freshmen swimmers.

“We’re a very young team this year, and we’re just looking to find out what our 11 freshmen can do against Big 12 competition,” said coach Duane Sorenson. “We’re going to be doing a lot of mixing and matching. It is kind of a preseason shoot-out, a chance for all the coaches with their new kids to put them in different events, and mix and match to see strengths with a lot of different combinations.”

Diving coach Jeff Warrick agrees Friday’s competition will act as a good gauge.

“In both meets this weekend, it’s early for everybody,” Warrick said. “The Big 12 Relays is a good way to kick off the season with a little bit of a different format and we’re expecting some good things from our two divers returning, Kali [Fryklund] and Tien [Tran], who have some good experience. We are also expecting good things from the freshmen who are just starting to gain that experience right now, still kind of learning.”

Saturday will bring even more straightforward competition as Iowa State heads into a dual meet against Texas A&M, which should be a good challenge for the Cyclones, Sorenson said.

“Texas A&M was in the top 10 in the NCAA and won the Big 12 last year, so we’re hoping to hang with those guys and see where we end up,” Sorenson said. “It’ll also be good to see the other Big 12 teams we don’t have the opportunity to swim against in a dual meet setting, like Texas A&M. This will give our women a chance to see what the other teams can also do.”

New and returning swimmers are incredibly anxious to get into the tough competition in the Big 12.

“I am excited and I think we’re ready for whatever is going to happen,” sophomore swimmer in sprints Frances Calzada said. “I’m hoping we can remember what we did last year and I hope we will be able to carry that over and do really well this year.”

Overall, both swimming and diving teams are looking forward to a good weekend of races.

“It’s going to be a lot of racing and we’re going to have some pretty tired legs out there come Saturday,” Sorenson said. “But it’s going to be a fun weekend to show we’re training hard and working hard, and our team is looking forward to what happens.”