When a team faces its biggest rival, it helps to have a meet beforehand to prepare.

The ISU swimming and diving team has that opportunity to prepare at 1 p.m. Saturday at Beyer Hall Pool when they take on Northern Iowa.

Coach Duane Sorenson said the Cyclones (4-0) will use this meet as a springboard for their Hy-Vee Cy-Hawk Series rivalry meet with the Iowa Hawkeyes Dec. 8 in Iowa City.

“This should get us tuned up well for the Iowa meet,” Sorenson said. “There should be some very good individual races in this meet as well.

“It is a good way to end first semester and kind of see where we are going into the Christmas break,” said senior Lauren Breunig. This meet will not be the same as the Iowa meet, however.

“This meet is way different,” Breunig said. “This meet should get us ready for that meet.”

A different aspect to this meet is that there will be no diving competition because Northern Iowa has no divers.

Diving coach Jeff Warrick said the team will practice through the meet, however.

“We are looking from consistency,” Warrick said. “We are looking at technique things that we’ve made changes to in practice, and hopefully we will see those in the meet.”

Warrick said the divers may be at full strength by this weekend with the possible return of sophomore Haley Haynes.

“We’re three out of four, and we may have four who are ready,” Warrick said. “After Wednesday, we will see how Haley is doing.”

Some of the key races in this meet will be the backstroke events and the distance freestyles.

The Cyclones are coming off of a seventh-place finish in the Minnesota Invitational on Nov. 17 to 19. The Panthers (2-5) are coming off of a 169-121 win over Minnesota State-Mankato.

On the positive side, freshman diver Tien Tran was named Big 12 Diver of the Week for her performance in the Minnesota Invitational.

Tran placed third in the 3-meter springboard, fifth in the 1-meter springboard and eighth in the platform competition. Those finishes go along with her six first-place finishes in the Cyclones’ dual meets and she is also qualified for the NCAA Zone Diving Championships in the 3-meter event.

The Cyclones also signed eight swimmers for the 2007-08 season, including three breaststroke swimmers, which should add to the Cyclones’ depth.