Competing in events on back-to-back days, especially at the end of the season, is tough, but having an opportunity to prepare beforehand helps.

The ISU swimming and diving team has that chance this weekend when it competes Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Minnesota Invitational, hosted by the University of Minnesota. Luckily, the Cyclones have also had a week off to rest before this meet.

The last time the Cyclones competed was a double dual against Western Illinois and Illinois State on Nov. 3, in which the Cyclones swept the competition to improve their record to 4-0.

Both swimming coach Duane Sorenson and diving coach Jeff Warrick said the week off helped in some aspects but hindered in others.

“The time in between definitely helped Kali [Fryklund],” Warrick said.

“With Haley [Haynes], though, we have not quite figured out what is wrong and how to treat it, so it will take more time.”

Fryklund is coming off of an injury and will compete in two of the three diving events this weekend, and Haynes is still battling a nagging injury and may not compete this weekend.

“In our season plan, we used the week off to notch up our training a little bit,” Sorenson said. “However, we had some people sick these last couple of weeks.”

The format of the events in this meet, with each event having a preliminary and a final, is very similar to the format of the Big 12 Championships at the end of the season.

“Hopefully, we will be learning how to swim well in the morning when you are not exactly awake,” Sorenson said. “Then, if you get into the finals, you can have a peak performance at night.”

The diving format will actually include the platform competition this weekend, as well as having three rounds of diving for each event with preliminaries, semifinals and finals.

Fryklund said this meet should help the team prepare for the conference meet in February.

“This meet is a lot like conference,” Fryklund said. “With the competing on back-to-back-to-back days and the prelims, semifinals and finals, this meet will be a good preparation for Big 12s.”

Warrick said he is looking for his divers to be competitive and confident.

“This is going to be an exciting meet and a big meet,” Warrick said. “It will be a good competition and is a good tune-up for the big meets down the road.”