A strong showing against top-level competition at the Big Twelve Relays and Invitational last Friday and Saturday in Lincoln, Neb. has the Iowa State men’s swimming and diving team in good shape heading into the dual meet season.

The 24th ranked Cyclones placed fourth at Friday’s relays with 40 points, trailing Texas (72 pts.), Texas A&M (52 pts.) and Nebraska (48 pts.). Texas is ranked third in the country, and Texas A&M and Nebraska are tied at 15th. No scores were kept for Saturday’s invitational.

Trip Hedrick, ISU head swimming coach, said he was pleased with his team’s performance.

“We swam a lot faster than we did last year in our relays,” he said. “We can’t control how others swim, we like to focus on our performances and the competitive parts of racing.”

The Cyclones put together six relay teams with top three finishes, topped by the 200 yd. freestyle relay unit of Joakim Dahl, Martin Anderson, freshman Travis Lee, and Jeff Gahan that placed second with a time of 1:24.35.

ISU also had third place finishes in the 200 yd. medley relay, 400 yd. medley relay, 400 yd. freestyle relay, 300 yd. butterfly relay and the 300 yd. backstroke relay.

Hedrick said the 2:32.26 time of the 300 yd. backstroke relay team of Brian Rogers, Peder Skoog and freshman Jeff Crews was ISU’s fastest ever in that event.

Top individual performances for the Cyclones included a first place finish for Skoog in the 200 yd. backstroke and third place finishes by Mitch McGinty in the 100 yd. butterfly, Lovrenco Franicevic in the 200 yd. butterfly, Mark Ritcey in the 200 yd. breaststroke and Josh Nogar in the 200 yd. backstroke.

Skoog said he was happy with his effort, but he is looking to improve as the season goes on.

“I think there’s more to come this season, but I think that’s a good indicator of where I’m at,” he said.

Hedrick said that overall he was looking at the Big Twelve meets as a good depth indicator for the Cyclones. He said he feels comfortable after what he saw.

“I was worried about a few areas but I’m not after this meet,” he said.

The diving team also showed some positive signs for the Cyclones.

Head ISU diving coach Jeff Warrick said Steve Mohabir and freshman Mike Amberson did a good job sticking with their game plan and executing their dives.

“I thought they focused on what we’ve been working on and they were really competitive,” Warrick said.

Mohabir finished 11th on both the one and three meter diving events, scoring a 224.55 in the one meter competition and 212.25 on the three meter dive.

Amberson placed 12th in the one meter event and 13th in the three meter dive. He said the level of competition in the Big Twelve was a big jump from high school.

“It was pretty impressive, they looked really good compared to high school,” Amberson said.

Warrick said the great diving competition throughout the Big Twelve conference is a good evaluator for his team and what they could do better on.

ISU is now preparing for meets this Friday and Saturday against Southwest Missouri State and Missouri.

Hedrick said the Cyclones are in a heavy part of their training cycle and have a big challenge in getting mentally focused. He said Missouri will be ready to sneak up on the Cyclones.

“The meet was one-sided last year but it was much closer than the score indicated,” Hedrick said. “The major nucleus of their talent is back and it’ll be a good challenge for us.”