Five seniors have used up their eligibility for the ISU women’s swimming and diving team, but the Cyclones have already received commitments from five women to fill those spots two weeks before national signing day — and they’re not done yet.

Swimming coach Duane Sorenson said his goal was to add six to eight new swimmers to the team for next year. Iowa State has received four letters of intent — from three swimmers and one diver — and has secured another diver who has not signed a letter of intent, but has signed a letter of admission to Iowa State.

“We’re out there recruiting young women who are quality athletes both in the pool and the classroom, just like the students we’ve graduated,” Sorenson said.

He said it was his hope to address the team’s need for improvement in the breaststroke and sprint freestyle events, feeling the two events needed to have better speed and potential.

A major reason for this is the departure of two seniors, Brita Benson and Jenny Lindberg, who were mainstays in the sprint freestyles.

His first recruit is Benson’s sister, Marni. Sorenson said he feels the younger Benson has potential in both the breaststroke and sprint freestyle.

The other recruit expected to shore up the event is Britt Samuelson.

“Britt is a very good sprint freestyler who we think can get much faster,” Sorenson said.

“She has the potential to have an immediate impact in the sprint freestyle, but she’s not quite there yet. With hard work over the summer and the fall, when the season starts we hope she’ll be able to have an immediate impact.”

In the breaststroke, Sorenson has inked Madeline Crawford, a 200 breaststroker who he said can jump in right away.

Sorenson said the team has always been one or two swimmers short in the breaststroke events, but he thinks both Benson and Crawford will change that.

For diving, coach Jeff Warrick has been able to secure two recruits, Haley Haynes and Tamsin Summers. Haynes will receive a scholarship, and Summers will walk on.

Warrick said Haynes contacted him first and it was her high level of interest in the program that attracted him to her.

“When you have somebody who is really interested in your program, you want to bring them in,” he said.

Warrick said Summers also bought into the ISU program and seems excited to be coming to Ames. He added he feels she has a lot of untapped potential, but brings with her an injury-plagued record.

“She’s had a lot of setback injuries, but that probably won’t be a recurring thing,” he said.

“She has a lot of high expectations for herself and she’s going to have to work really hard to make those.”

Unlike the swimmers, Warrick said he wasn’t trying to address any specific need, but was searching for people who would be able to dive in all three events.

A problem most new divers face is inexperience, mostly in the platform event.

But what Haynes lacks in experience in platform diving, she makes up for with big meet experience.

“She qualified for the West Junior Nationals,” Warrick said. “So she has a lot of big-meet experience at that level.”

The Junior Nationals is a smaller version of the Senior Nationals, which chooses all the members who represent the United States in international events like the Olympics.

Warrick said he’s confident when national signing day rolls around he’ll have at least these two divers, possibly a third.