The ISU women’s swimming and diving team will compete in back-to-back Big 12 meets Friday and Saturday — a test run for the taxing three-day Big 12 Championships in late February.

The Cyclones will face Kansas Friday evening and Missouri Saturday afternoon.

“The reason we’re [competing in back-to-back meets] is to prepare us for the Big 12 Championships,” head coach Duane Sorenson said. “We’re trying to prepare the girls’ bodies for days that they will have to compete consecutively, to prepare for the turnaround factor.”

Senior Lara Skoog said the meet against St. Olaf last Friday in Northfield, Minn., was a good way to get back into a pressure situation.

“It was good to come back from training and create an environment that sort of matches the meets this weekend,” Skoog said. “It was a chance for us to get a new insight about ourselves.”

Sorenson said that of the two teams, he feels Iowa State matches up better against Kansas.

“There are some toss-up races where you’ll win some and you’ll lose some. The freestyle races are real toss-up events because theirs and ours are evenly matched,” Sorenson said.

Sorenson said because Missouri has more depth than Iowa State, it will take an outstanding meet to beat the Tigers.

“If one of their swimmers is off, they have another that can step up and compete. It’s really like we have to hold off against two or three swimmers,” he said.

Sorenson said both teams have swimmers who excel in particular matches. Kansas is strong in the 200 backstroke and 500 freestyle and Missouri is strong in the 100 and 200 butterfly and the 200 backstroke.

“Just like against Iowa, we are going to need one or two women to pull an upset,” he said.

Both Sorenson and Skoog agreed that against Missouri, Iowa State has to swim extremely well to win.

“Personally, I’ll have to swim my best and get a good shot at getting some points,” said Skoog, who will be swimming in the 1,000 and 500 distance events. “Myself, Kim [Schmugge] and Megan [Flaws] need to lead the team and get them psyched. We also have to realize that you can never win all the races.”

Sorenson agreed.

“We can win, we just can’t have any bad performances to do so,” he said.

The meet against Kansas starts at 6 p.m. Friday and the Missouri meet begins at 1 p.m. Saturday. Both meets will be held at Beyer Hall pool.