In what has become a yearly event, the ISU women’s swimming and diving team held an intrasquad meet Friday.

The Cardinal team won 161.50 to 117.5 over the Gold team, but there were a lot of close races.

The swimmers were racing for more than pride — the winning team didn’t have to clean up the pool area and got to eat right away.

“Sometimes little things are big things,” ISU head coach Duane Sorenson said.

The meet was a tune-up for what the team will face next week when the University of Minnesota comes to town.

“It gives the freshmen an opportunity to get used to a dual meet,” said ISU swimmer Carmella Nogar, who won the 200 yard individual medley with a time of 2:10.69.

Sometimes getting psyched to face your teammates can be a challenge, but ISU swimmer Kristen Vanek said that wasn’t a problem.

“It wasn’t that hard to get pumped up for the meet because of the incentive and the fact that athletes in general are just competitive; it’s our nature, especially with our team,” said Vanek, who won the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 5:11.97.

Vanek said she was happy with how the meet went.

“I was impressed with how many close races there were,” she said.

“They really did a good job of getting out there and going after it.”

The night belonged to freshman Kim Rogers.

Rogers had her best time ever in the 200-yard butterfly stroke (2:07.09), and her time in the 100-yard butterfly (58.84) was her season-best.

Before championships, she was barely under a minute,” Sorenson said.

“She has really come a long way in a short amount of time,” he said.

ISU diver Linda Wagner also had a good night by recording an impressive 277.40 in the 1-meter.

While overall Sorenson was happy with the meet, he did find some things that need to be corrected.

“We have a few weaknesses, such as coming out of turns stronger, but they can be fixed by next week,” he said.

“During practice, the girls turn with three-quarters speed because it can waste a lot of energy. They need to realize that this is still a competition,” he said.

The ISU women’s swimming and diving team faces Minnesota at 1 p.m. Saturday in Beyer Hall.

Facing a strong Gopher squad looks to be a challenge the team is up for.

“We feel that we are ready for them. Everybody’s been working really hard, and the way that we swam tonight was just awesome,” Nogar said.