The ISU women’s swimming and diving team will pit its skills against the Oles when it travels to Northfield, Minn. for a dual meet on Friday against St. Olaf.

This is the first meet for the Cyclones (2-1) since Dec. 9, when they narrowly lost to Iowa.

With a Big 12 meet coming up next week, coach Duane Sorenson said it is a good opportunity for the team to improve and polish its skills.

“We are using this meet as a tune-up for our Big 12 competition to come later in the season,” he said. “Our goal for this meet is to get back into the racing mold after three weeks of hard training.”

Iowa State is starting the busy part of its schedule with five meets in January and early February, leading into the Big 12 Championships held in late February.

The NCAA Championships for both swimming and diving are held in March.

“Our main focus as far as our meets and training for the rest of the season is to have our peak performance in the [conference] Championships and to qualify a number of athletes for the NCAA Championships,” Sorenson said.

So far this season, the Cyclones have put together two dominating 40-plus point victories over South Dakota State and Northern Iowa, and a loss to Iowa.

“I think that our positive attitude and hard work are the main keys to our success so far,” said sophomore Kali Fryklund.

The Cyclones have dominated the Oles in their last two meetings, winning 175-115 last season and 178-77 in 2004.

During Iowa State’s last competition, freshman Haley Haynes qualified for the NCAA Zone Diving Championships in March on the 3M board, winning that event along with the 1M board event. Haynes has also moved up to 10th on the ISU all-time lists in the 1M board event and to third in the 3M board.

“My main goal for the year was to qualify for the Zone Diving Championships,” Haynes said. “I was very excited to accomplish it, and now I would like to try to qualify for finals there.”

Fryklund also finished fourth in the 1M board at the winter training competition.

“Our goals for the rest of the season are to finish in the top three in the conference and to win all of our dual meets,” Fryklund said.

The Cyclones return home for a meet at Beyer Hall against Missouri on Jan. 20 before traveling to Omaha and Lincoln, Neb., on Jan. 27 and 28, respectively. The Cyclones swim against Nebraska-Omaha and Northern Colorado on Jan. 27 and the University of Nebraska on Jan. 28.