The best way to start a season is with a victory, and the ISU swimming and diving team wants to do just that in its home openers this weekend.

The Cyclones will attempt to start the season 2-0 when they compete against the South Dakota State University Jackrabbits at 6 p.m. Friday and the University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks at 10 a.m. Saturday. Both meets will be held at Beyer Hall pool. Saturday’s meet was originally scheduled for 1 p.m., but was moved up because the Homecoming football game was scheduled for 2:30 p.m.

Coach Duane Sorenson said the two meets are going to be completely different formats, with Friday’s meet featuring longer races and Saturday’s meet featuring more freestyle and medley events.

“This weekend will give our women a chance to compete in some different races,” Sorenson said. “There should be some good races in both meets and we will see how fast we can swim during heavy training.”

The Cyclones have yet to compete in a dual meet, but they did finish in a tie for fifth in the Big 12 Relays last Friday. Both Nebraska-Omaha and South Dakota State are 0-1 after dropping decisions to Kansas last Saturday. The Mavericks lost 220-79 and the Jackrabbits lost 227-71 to the Jayhawks.

Diving coach Jeff Warrick said he wants to see what attitude his divers will have toward the meet.

“When we get to the championship portion of the schedule, we just want them to be practiced and be able to handle the pressure,” Warrick said. “We’re also looking for them to continue the technical corrections that we are trying to make in practice.”

Freshman diver Tien Tran said the divers just want to continue what they had going last weekend.

“I thought we did really well [Friday],” Tran said. “This is a dual meet, so it is not as important, and we just want to do what we can to stay consistent.”

The team did get some good news about sophomore Kali Fryklund. She is on track to come back soon from her injury, Warrick said.

“She, of course, wanted to be released earlier,” Warrick said. “She is making progress the way the doctors hoped she would and is coming right along.”

After this weekend, the Cyclones will travel to Macomb, Ill., to take on Illinois State University and the University of Western Illinois on Nov. 3.