The ISU women’s swimming and diving team will travel to Minneapolis to participate in the Minnesota Invitational beginning Friday and ending Sunday.

Both head swimming coach Duane Sorenson and head diving coach Jeff Warrick said they expect some tough competition from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Sorenson said the Cyclones can only guess where the other teams will place their best swimmers.

“You’re always going to have events that you are strong in and ones you are weak in; it just depends on the competition,” Sorenson said.

“You can only guess where the other teams will place their best swimmers. I tell them, ‘All you can really do is control the clock, not the other swimmers.'”

On Friday, the swimmers will participate in three individual swims and two relays.

On Saturday, there are five individuals and two relays, leaving five more individuals and one relay for Sunday.

The format for this meet is similar to the conference championships, which will be held in February.

Those events are considered preliminary swims since the top eight in each event will compete again later that day for points. There is one exception and that is the 1,650 freestyle, also known as the “mile swim.” The top eight finishers will receive their points then and not later.

During the past week, Sorenson has been getting his swimmers mentally prepared for their preliminary swims.

He said Iowa State can prepare better because there are fewer events each day than in a dual meet, where the swimmers have all their events in one day.

“I want them to swim fast during their prelims and then come back in the finals and improve their place or time,” Sorenson said.

Sorenson said he will keep a close eye on sophomore Chelsey Walden, who will be participating in her first full meet.

Walden has had mononucleosis all year, and Sorenson said he considers it more of a training meet for her.

Warrick said he is expecting a good showing from the Iowa divers, two of whom were in the NCAA championship finals last year; another participated in the summer Olympic trials.

“I know she did really well in her events, and, I’m not sure, but I think she placed fourth,” Warrick said.

The main area of concern for Iowa State is injuries.

“I think out of the three divers I do have, only one is completely healthy,” Warrick said.

That one healthy diver is senior Gail Olson.

“I think Gail is having one of her best years by far,” Warrick said. “She is really excelling, and as long as she stays healthy she should have a great year.”

Junior Hillary Nichols has been plagued by a sprained right ankle, but she will compete at the invitational; Katie Herman will not. She hurt her foot on the way to class the other day, Warrick said.

Warrick said he couldn’t explain it, nor could X-rays.

Herman told Warrick she felt a shooting pain, and X-rays didn’t detect a problem.

If the pain doesn’t go away, Herman might have a CAT scan after the team gets back.

Like the swimmers, the divers will have their events spread out during the three days. On Friday, they will do six 1-meter dives, Saturday will be 11 3-meter dives, and Sunday there will be nine dives off the platform.

The top eight finalists in the 1 and 3-meter will dive again later their respective days for the points.

On Saturday, the team will only have to do six of their hardest dives out of the original 11, called optionals.

For platform, the divers have three height options — 5, 7.5 and 10 meters.