The 1997-1998 undefeated Iowa State men’s swimming and diving team produced four All-Americans and had seven individuals advance to the NCAA championships. The Cyclones plan to do even better this season.

Trip Hedrick, head coach of the Cyclones, said, “We had a pretty remarkable season last year, and I think our goal is to top last year in every way we can. Everything fell into place last year, and it adds a little pressure to the season.”

Hedrick said the Cyclones return a strong nucleus from last year’s squad that manufactured the school’s first undefeated season in 24 years, placed fourth in the Big Twelve championships and 35th at the NCAAs.

The returning list includes three members of the returning All-American 200 medley relay unit in Brian Rogers, Henrik Ingesson and Jeff Gahan.

Rogers, who is a junior at ISU, said the training has gotten more intense every year since he’s been at Iowa State and that “everyone feels the pressure to keep competing and do better.”

He added that the Cyclones would like to improve on both their conference and NCAA placements from last year.

“We’d like to get more people to the NCAAs and improve in the Big 12,” Rogers said. “Realistically, we’re looking [at finishing] between second or third [in the conference finals] and to place in the top 15 at the NCAAs.”

He also said that individually he would like to make it to the NCAAs in the 100 backstroke as well as the 200 medley relay again.

Gahan said that the Cyclones probably will be better than last year and “hopefully will get more than seven guys to the NCAAs and place in the top 15 nationally.”

He added that he would like to make the NCAAs in the 1500 freestyle race and a few relays as well as earn Academic All-American.

The Cyclones also return NCAA qualifiers Mitchell McGinty, Lovrenco Franicevic and Joakim Dahl.

McGinty, Dahl and Franicevic form what Hedrick said is one of the strongest butterfly teams in the country.

Commenting on his returning group, Hedrick said, “We have so many young guys that have NCAA experience that that can do nothing but help us.” He added, “We also have a number of guys returning that scored really well for us at the conference meet.”

Hedrick said he has never had a group of guys that swam as well and trained as hard during the summer as these guys did.

The Cyclones also boast a solid group of incoming freshmen that will provide great depth, which has Hedrick very excited.

“We have a pretty incredible group of incoming freshmen,” Hedrick said. “We don’t have really any holes in any one of our events. I’m confident we’re extremely well covered all the way through.”

Travis Lee, a high school All-American from Muscatine, is one of the highly regarded freshman joining the Cyclones. He said everything has gone fine during his first year at ISU, and he plans to “do his part” in being a team player and reaching his goals.

He said, “I want to improve and try to be one of the faster swimmers on the team and earn a top four or five position in the sprint freestyle.”

Other newcomers include: Jeff Crews, Ben Litton, Brett Lohmeir, Aron Nahama, Billy Reese, Doug Owen, Dan Burns and redshirt freshman Kevin Duda.

Gahan said of the incoming freshmen, “Freshmen are hard to tell in terms of what they’ll do. They’ll need to step it up and contribute; hopefully they can help us a lot.”

The Cyclone men’s diving squad is under the tutelage of first-year coach Jeff Warrick.

Warrick arrives from Davenport West High School, where he coached the girl’s diving team for three years. He is replacing Jerry Symons, who coached the Cyclone men and women divers to numerous honors during his 33 years as coach.

Warrick said it is going to be a challenge replacing Symons, but he is excited for the season to start and is looking forward to bringing his own personality to the team.

“I’m just getting to know the divers, but I feel there’s a lot of talent there and a lot of success. I believe we can keep it going as well as improve upon it.”

The Cyclone divers this year are Steve Mohabir, Jim Zagaria, Kevin Duda, Mike Amberson and Dan Burns.

Mohabir and Zagaria are the returning divers who were competitive last year.

Warrick said the Nebraska head diving coach called Mohabir the most improved diver in the conference last year. He added that Mohabir’s competitive attitude should propel him toward making the NCAA zone qualifying meet and earning a trip to the NCAA championships.

Zagaria said that Warrick is a “great coach” and he hopes to learn a lot from him.

“I think it’s a good change, and I expect him to help me reach my goals and learn as much as I can,” he said.

The Cyclones’ schedule for the upcoming season will be a big test for them, as it includes only three home dual meets. According to Hedrick, the Cyclones also will have plenty of stiff competition from the likes of Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska.

“It’ll be a great schedule. We had highly spirited meets last year with Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas last year, and we know they’ll be ready to swim against us this year,” Hedrick said. “We don’t have many home meets this year, and it’ll be a real challenge to see if we can step up on the road.”

Hedrick said the Cyclones’ main goals, though, have always been geared toward the conference and NCAA meets at the end of the season.

“We don’t like to alter our plans for the end of the season goals with our dual meets,” he said. “It’s a challenge to stay focused on our end of the season goals and not get caught up in the dual meet pressure. It’s kind of a balancing act.”

Hedrick said another undefeated season will be tough to accomplish, but he expects this season will definitely be a success.

He said, “We’ve got a real strong group of returnees and an exceptional, competitive incoming class that should be the formula for a really strong season.”