The Missouri swimming and diving team put another notch in its belt against Iowa State on Saturday in Columbia, winning its sixth straight dual meet over the Cyclones, 188-107.

The loss starts out the Cyclones’ conference portion of their schedule on a low note after they had won their last three meets.

“Our kids were just a little too uptight,” swimming coach Duane Sorenson said. “I thought they were pressuring themselves too much, and they didn’t go out there and enjoy the meet.”

Diving coach Jeff Warrick said he didn’t feel that sense coming from his divers. Instead, he felt their subpar finishes had more to do with the environment.

“I’m not trying to make excuses for them, but in the Mizzou pool, the home team has the advantage. When you go off the 3-meter board, you feel like you’re going to hit the ceiling. You won’t, but it just feels that way. And, the water depth is much shallower than ours. So when you jump, you think you’re going to hit the ceiling and then the bottom.”

In the 1-meter event, junior Hillary Nichols finished in second place with a 265.65 score. However, Warrick says that is incorrect because the scorekeepers made a miscalculation in her favor. He said that her real score should have been the 240 range, which would have dropped her to fifth. Senior Gail Olson’s third-place finish (254.10) would have moved her up one spot. Fellow senior Katie Herman’s 229.73 gave her the sixth position.

Olson did finish in second (239.85) in the following event, the 3-meter springboard. Herman was one spot behind her with a score of 239.03. Nichols brought up the rear with her fifth-place finish (229.20).

“My hat’s off to the Missouri divers,” Warrick said. “They dove really well, and we didn’t dive as well as we could have.”

Junior swimmer Lydia Smirniotis “really attacked her 1,000 freestyle”, Sorenson said. She finished the event in 10:28.26. Before that she swam 5:12.46 in the 500 freestyle to place second.

Krista Fehl, a freshman, swam a lifetime best (1:06.24) for a second-place finish in the 100 breaststroke.