A loss always hurts, but it hurts even worse when you hold a lead late in the competition.

The ISU swimming and diving team suffered the sting of defeat Saturday, losing to Nebraska, 153-145. The Cyclones (5-3, 0-2) led 105-100 with five events to go, but the Huskers (6-5, 1-3 Big 12) roared back with a one-two finish in the 500-meter freestyle to take the lead for good.

Swimming coach Duane Sorenson said even with the loss, he was happy with the performance of the swimmers because several swimmers had season-best times in the meet.

“That is what we’re looking for right now,” Sorenson said. “We were just a little weak in a couple of events like the 200 butterfly. Our strengths were their weaknesses, and their strengths were our weaknesses.”

The Cyclones actually won more events than the Huskers, but it was the second through fifth places where Nebraska gained back a lot of points. ISU jumped out to an early lead by going one-two in the 200 medley relay, which was won by the team of sophomore Lindsay Wegner, sophomore Marni Benson, freshman Abby Glaser and senior Cassandra Nelson.

Wegner added to that victory by taking the 100 backstroke and Nelson and Glaser were on the team that won the final event of the meet, the 400 freestyle relay, along with freshman Lindsey Behrens and freshman Frances Calzada. Calzada also won the 50 freestyle.

The other five Cyclone victories were collected by two individuals – senior Lauren Breunig and junior Krista Fehl. Fehl swept the 100 and 200 breaststroke, and Breunig won the 100 and 200 freestyles, as well as the 200 individual medley.

Breunig said the three victories during her last meet at Beyer Hall pool were great, but the team performance was better.

“It came down really close and I think that was the most important,” Breunig said. “Those first two relays really helped us.”

The high finish for the Cyclones in the diving events was freshman Tien Tran’s second-place finish on the 3-meter springboard.

Diving coach Jeff Warrick said he was disappointed with the performance in the 1-meter event, though.

“That was not what we were capable of doing,” Warrick said. “I was happy how they bounced back.”

Breunig said the meet gives the team confidence going into the conference meet.

“I don’t think a lot of people thought we could compete with Nebraska, and we did,” Breunig said.

Iowa State has one more meet with Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., on Jan. 26 to 27 before the Big 12 Championships on Feb. 14 to 17.