The 22nd-ranked ISU men’s swimming and diving team achieved what it set out to accomplish Friday and Saturday by trouncing the North Dakota Fighting Sioux 247-72 in Ames.

The Cyclones bounced back from consecutive dual meet losses to Iowa and Nebraska to up its record to 5-2 in the season’s final home meet.

Trip Hedrick, ISU head men’s swimming coach, said the Cyclones did an excellent job focusing on performing well throughout both days of competition.

“Under the circumstances we really stood up and raced well,” he said.

The meet was split into two days with the short events taking place Friday and the distance events on Saturday.

Hedrick said this was done in preparation for the upcoming Big 12 Championships.

“[We] wanted to put it into placed because our conference meet is like it,” he said.

Hedrick said the Cyclones sought to race frequently throughout the weekend, committing to techniques they worked on in practice and standing up and racing hard.

He added he was “extremely pleased” that the Cyclones were able to achieve these and other goals.

“[We] brushed up on better discipline on turns and worked with a number of guys on their starts and touches on finishes,” Hedrick said.

Evan deSzoeke is one of the ISU swimmers who benefited from the extra attention to detail.

“I’m really working on getting my technique down and feeling strong through the whole meet,” he said. “I really think my turn has improved a lot.”

DeSzoeke captured first place in both the 1,650-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle, clocking in a time of 15:55.19 in the 1,650 and 4:39.39 in the 500.

“I was happy with my mile, but my 500 free wasn’t quite what I wanted,” he added.

Peder Skoog took first in three individual events for the Cyclones.

He won the 200-yard individual medley event with a time of 1:56.75 and captured both the 100 and 200-yard backstroke events with 0:52.12 and 1:50.68 times, respectively.

Dylan deBruin and Ben Litton contributed two winning efforts each for ISU.

DeBruin won the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle races, coming in with a time of :20.98 in the 50 and :46.27 in the 100. Litton grabbed first in the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke events, clocking a :58.99 in the 100 and 2:12.10 in the 200.

ISU also received strong first- place performances from Rob Breshears in the 200-yard freestyle, Lovre Franicevic in the 200-yard butterfly and Mitch McGinty in the 100-yard butterfly.

Hedrick said McGinty’s close victory over teammate Joakim Dahl at :48.85 to :49.19 was the most exciting event of the meet. McGinty said he was surprised with his effort.

“When I was done, there was no way in hell I expected I was going that fast,” McGinty said.

The ISU men’s diving team also put together a strong outing. The Cyclone divers were led by Steve Mohabir, who won both the 1-meter and 3-meter board competition. Mohabir scored a 290.47 on the 1-meter board and 295.95 in the 3-meter competition.

Mohabir’s score on the 1-meter board qualified him for the NCAA Zone 5 qualifying meet.

The zone-qualifying meet determines who will dive at the NCAA championships in March. Mohabir said that qualifying is a “real treat.”

“I was pretty excited,” he said. “I was diving consistently throughout the week, [and] I just had to maintain a positive attitude and everything would fall into place.”

Mike Amberson also dove well, placing second in both dives and scoring a season-best 275.85 on the 1-meter dive.

Head ISU diving coach Jeff Warrick said his divers are putting everything together now and are focusing on keeping everything consistent.

“Both the men and the women are peaking at the right time,” he said. “We’re working on the finer tuning and developing consistency, which is basically to visualize doing a good dive, [to] concentrate and [to] stay relaxed.”

ISU will close out its dual meet season Feb. 6 against the 23rd- ranked Kansas Jayhawks in Lawrence, Kan.

Hedrick said his team will continue to gear toward the Big 12 championships, but the meet should be a good one.

“On paper it’s a meet that’s too close to call,” Hedrick said.