A comeback effort by the Iowa State men’s swimming team came up short Saturday as the Cyclones placed second at the Notre Dame Quadrangular meet in South Bend, Ind.

The meet pitted ISU against Purdue, Notre Dame, Miami and Ohio. The Cyclones totaled 441 points, good for second place behind Purdue, who finished with 468 points.

Trip Hedrick, ISU head coach, said the Cyclones got off to a slow start but rebounded with a strong second half performance.

“We had an excellent second half and made a nice run at Purdue,” he said. “If we had swam the first half like we did the second half [of the meet], the meet would have been much closer.”

Lovrenco Franicevic and Peder Skoog paved the way for the Cyclones, combining for three first-place finishes and one runner-up score. Franicevic won the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:51.69 and added another first-place time in the 500-yard freestyle at 4:34.78. Skoog clocked a time of 1:50.80 to win the 200-yard backstroke and finished second in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of :52.38.

“I was a little slow on my 100 but came around and got my best time in the 200,” Skoog said of his performance.

Franicevic said he is swimming better now than he was a year ago, and he is enjoying the effort his team is putting out.

“I feel pretty good; there’s been a lot of excitement,” he said. “I think there are a lot of other people doing well, and it’s exciting to see that.”

Mitch McGinty and Joakim Dahl made big contributions toward the Cyclone effort as they placed one-two the 100-yard butterfly. McGinty won the race with a :49.82 time, and Dahl came in second at :50.61. Dahl added a third-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle.

Hedrick said he was also pleased with the performance of his 400-yard freestyle relay team of Franicevic, Skoog, Dahl and Mike Anderson. They combined to swim a time of 3:04.88 and bring home another first-place finish for the Cyclones.

The Cyclone diving team also did well as Steve Mohabir placed second in the three-meter dive and third in the one-meter event. His score in the three-meter competition was 250.35, while he earned a point total of 221.65 on the one-meter dive.

“I had pretty strong and consistent dives,” he said.

Freshman Mike Amberson managed a fourth-place effort on the one-meter board with a score of 206.55.

Hedrick said that overall, he liked the effort of his team and the competitive growth they displayed.

“I really like the way we came back and proved we could face hard [conditions] and compete even though we didn’t feel the best during the meet,” he said. “I think we gained the knowledge that we’re getting fit enough mentally and physically to compete against anyone, including teams we don’t know much about.”

The Cyclones’ next competition will be at the Minnesota Invitational on Nov. 20-22 in Minneapolis, Minn.