The ISU women’s swimming and diving team came up short against a strong Minnesota squad Saturday afternoon, losing 175-122.

“There were a lot of close races and unfortunately they won most of those,” ISU head swimming coach Duane Sorenson said. “Sometimes those close races come back to bite you in the rear end.”

Although Iowa State lost, several Cyclones recorded personal bests.

“The biggest highlight of the meet was our success on the 3-meter board,” ISU diving coach Jeff Warrick said. “We have been struggling with that for the last four years and made it a goal of ours to step it up this year.”

ISU junior Linda Wagner placed second on the 3-meter board, scoring 276 points, while sophomore Alicia Adsit came in third with a score of 266.85, a personal best. Katie Herman came in fifth with a score of 255.27, also a personal best.

Wagner was also successful on the 1-meter board, finishing second with a score of 266.32. Her finishes were good enough to qualify her for the NCAA Zone Championships in both diving events.

ISU freshman Hillary Nichols also got into the act by finishing fourth on the 1-meter board with a personal best of 242.62.

“I was very pleased with them; they stepped it up to the level of competition they were facing today,” Warrick said of the divers.

Also placing on the swimming side were Carmella Nogar, who had a career-best time of 58.09 in the 100-meter butterfly coming in at second place, and Iowa State’s 400-meter freestyle relay team of Brita Benson, Susanne Notbohm, Rena Kelinson and Melissa Jensen, who won the event with a time of 3:33.18.

Petra Plaminkova also came in second place in the 200-meter medley relay and then, without having the luxury of a break, won the 1,000-yard freestyle.

Although the team came up short Saturday, Sorenson said the team understands the season is still very young.

“They understand that their reward comes in February,” he said.

Sorenson compared it to putting money in a bank.

“You keep on putting money in the bank and putting money in the bank and then at the end of the season you with draw it,” he said.

Sorenson said the team will be practicing hard the next two weeks to correct the little things.

The Cyclones are off until Nov. 8th when they face Western Illinois. Then they follow that up with a meet against Illinois State Nov. 9. Both meets are on the road.