Three world record-holding male swimmers will be competing at Iowa State this weekend at the Big 12 Relays.

“It will be exciting to watch them swim — they are the best of the best in the world,” said Duane Sorenson, head coach of the ISU women’s team. “Not many people have the opportunity to watch that level of swimming.”

The meet, held at Beyer Hall, will feature women’s swimming and diving teams from Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Texas and Texas A&M and men’s teams from Texas, Texas A&M and Missouri.

The Cyclones will be missing two of their top divers for the meet, senior Linda Wagner and sophomore Hillary Nichols. The two comprised the team for the diving relay which took first place at last year’s Big 12 Relays.

Despite the missing competitors, diving coach Jeff Warrick said he is optimistic about the event.

The meet would be a chance to compete against Big 12 teams in preparation for the rest of the season, Sorenson said.

“There are no Big 12 dual meet championships,” Sorenson said. “We compete against each other throughout the season and train for one big performance.”

That one big performance is the Big 12 Championships in February. This years’ meet will be held in Austin, Texas. “We train hard all fall and then taper for the Big 12 Championships in February,” Sorenson said. “We’ve been having two-a-day practices in the pool and lifting weights every day.”

Other Big 12 teams have been having strenuous fall training sessions, Sorenson said.

“The teams will be fatigued,” he said. “We’ll all be on the same plane, it’s just a chance to race.”

The team’s top returners are seniors Sam Dyshaw, Susanne Notbohm and Petra Plaminkova, Sorenson said. Plaminkova has made the all-conference team each of the last three years and is a four-time Big 12 runner-up.

Dyshaw was the only Cyclone qualifier for the NCAA Championships last year. Notbohm had been a qualifier her sophomore year. Dyshaw will be swimming varying lengths of freestyle and butterfly and the 100-meter individual medley, an event that she does not normally swim.

“There are so many events in this meet that you need someone to do them all,” she said.Dyshaw said she is hoping to go out and improve on her times from this point last season.

“We’re looking really strong [as a team],” she said. “Our freshmen are great and we have some strong upperclassmen. We should do really well.” The Big 12 Relays begin at 9 a.m. on Friday. The swimming and diving teams will face teams from Texas A&M and Missouri in another meet on Saturday at 10 a.m.