It is hard enough to nab that first Big 12 win, and things aren’t made easier by competing against a team that is undefeated in the conference.

The ISU swimming and diving team faces that dilemma this weekend in its final dual meet of the season, when it swims against Kansas Friday and Saturday. Events begin at 6 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday in Beyer Hall.

The Cyclones (5-3, 0-2 Big 12) defeated both Nebraska-Omaha and Northern Colorado in a double dual last Friday, but dropped a dual to Big 12 rival Nebraska Saturday. The Jayhawks (7-2, 2-0) defeated Division 3 Drury 157-70 last Friday.

During Friday’s dual, the Cyclones won the first 12 events, coasting to two dominating 40-plus point victories. On Saturday, Iowa State led many events but could not finish them off, costing them a victory.

Along with the dual, Iowa State will honor eight seniors on Saturday: Melissa Fender, Hillary Nichols, Shannon Parker, Maggie Peterson, Tami Ritchie, Kim Rogers, Lydia Smirniotis and Jamie Wieben.

Rogers said it will be a fun, exciting meet.

“We are not doing regular events and this meet is kind of for fun,” Rogers said. “It will be a good chance to just get out and race.”

Peterson said it would be exciting to win the final home meet for the seniors.

“We are going to try our hardest,” Peterson said. “We’re hoping that we can pull it off and Kansas is a really good team, so it should be a good meet.”

The Cyclones have lost to the Jayhawks the last two years, including 196-99 last year. Iowa State beat Kansas for three consecutive years before that.

The Cyclones and the Jayhawks have three common opponents: Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska. Iowa State lost to all three of those teams. However, Kansas defeated all three by at least 50 points.

Swimming coach Duane Sorenson said the Jayhawks are just like any other Big 12 school.

“They are very talented with good stars and good depth,” Sorenson said. “I think that we can match up with them very well, and have some good races like we did with Nebraska.”

Sorenson also said the meet will be a little bit different, because it is the last meet before the Big 12 Championships.

“We are going to a different order of events and changing the lengths of some races,” Sorenson said. “Instead of 200s, we will swim 150s, and instead of 100s, we will swim 50s. It should be a good opportunity for the women to swim some all-out races.”

Iowa State’s next competitions are the Big 12 Championships Feb. 22 to 25 in Columbia, Mo., and the NCAA Championships in early March.