Coming off an emotional loss to rival Iowa, the ISU swimming and diving team look to regroup to face a strong Missouri squad. The team has three more Saturday meets before the Big 12 Championships.

When asked to compare Missouri to a team the Cyclones have already faced, head coach Duane Sorenson said they are similar to Minnesota. “They have a lot of depth and don’t have any weaknesses,” Sorenson said.

Despite the Tigers being ranked No. 21 in the nation, the Cyclones aren’t going to back down.

“I think it’s going to be a very close meet. It’s going to be a challenge but I feel that we can stand up with them,” said swimmer Susanne Notbohm, senior in physics.

“The last two years we’ve faced each other, they have been close meets and the team that has survived won the touch up races,” she said. “In order to win we have the attitude of go for the pain.”

Every ranked team has key members that the opposition needs to recognize. There are two individuals in particular who have caught Sorenson’s eyes.

“Andrea Nigh is outstanding in the 50 and 100 freestyle and Sarah Lo compliments her by excelling in the 100 and 200 backstroke,” Sorenson said.

Although the loss to Iowa hurts, the team is going to make sure it doesn’t define their whole season. “We wanted to beat Iowa, but there is nothing we can do about it now. We will learn from our mistakes and try not to repeat them,” Notbohm said.

Sorenson did find some positives out of the meet. “I have a very mixed reaction,” Sorenson said. “Carmella Noggar, Petra Plaminkova, Shannon Parker and diver Hillary Nichols had personal bests, but some of the others didn’t meet our expectations.”

Sorenson said the Iowa meet involved 16 races that were decided by less than half of a second and Iowa won 14 of them.

“In order to beat Missouri we need to win those types of races,” Notbohm said. “There is no margin for error.”

The last three meets will be used to build up confidence and work on the negatives so they are prepared for the Big 12 tournament and the NCAA tournament.

“We are a good team and were prepared for the stretch run,” Notbohm said.