The ISU women’s swimming and diving team has been in College Station, Texas for two days, competing in the Big 12 Championships. A slow start has Iowa State in last place, trailing Missouri by 18 points.

As of Thursday afternoon, no ISU swimmers had made the finals. Junior Lydia Smirniotis, however, was able to qualify for the consolation heat with her finish in the 500-yard freestyle, just missing the finals by two hundredths of a second. Her time of 4:55.29 was a personal record, beating her previous best by 11 seconds. It is the second fastest time a Cyclone has ever recorded for the event.

Sophomore Lauren Breunig also made the consolation heat with her 2:05.07 finish in the 200-yard individual medley.

Head coach Duane Sorenson said although the placings aren’t what the team wanted, he’s happy with his athletes.

“We’re just very happy with everyone’s individual performances, and we’re looking to keep that going,” he said.

While the swimmers have not cracked the final heats, the divers are another story. Two of three Cyclone divers made the finals in 3-meter diving.

In the semifinals of the 3-meter diving, junior Hillary Nichols and senior Gail Olson placed fifth and sixth, respectively, with scores of 431.85 and 418.50 to qualify for Thursday night’s final. Nichols managed a third-place finish in the finals with a score of 459.45 and Olson came in seventh, scoring 430.20.

“We’re real excited since one of our goals was to get at least one person from each event into the finals and we’ve done that.” said diving coach Jeff Warrick.

Although senior diver Katie Herman finished the event in 12th place, Warrick said he was still happy with her dive.

“Her performance in [the 3-meter] was probably the best she’s ever had on it and I don’t think her score was reflective of that,” he said.

Warrick said it was the first time Iowa State has had two divers make the finals for 3-meter diving. Olson had never made the finals in any event at the Big 12 Championships.

“I’m really hoping that all three divers can make the finals [Friday],” Warrick said. “They just have to take it one dive at a time. If they do that and keep focused, then I think they are going to do really well.”

The Big 12 Championships continue through Friday, and conclude on Saturday.