The Cyclone men’s swimming team was gearing up for the Big 12 Conference Meet all season. When the meet finally arrived, the team proved to be well-oiled.

However, Iowa State’s slick individual performances were not enough to earn a top-three finish at the contest.

Texas, a favorite to win the national title, crushed the field and won its second straight Big 12 title with 886 points. Nebraska finished second at 683.5, followed by Texas A&M with 579.

ISU claimed the fourth spot with 470.5, Kansas took fifth with 439 and Missouri’s 326 points earned them last place.

ISU Coach Trip Hedrick said he was impressed by the competition faced by his undefeated Cyclone squad.

“It was an excellent conference meet,” he said. “This conference is getting so much better with the addition of Texas. It sets a whole new standard of excellence, and our guys are stepping up to that extremely well.”

ISU’s three-time All-American Jay Schindler was one person who stepped above and beyond all others in the field.

His victory in the 100 breaststroke made him a four-time conference champion. He became only the fifth ISU swimmer ever to accomplish the feat.

Schindler raced to a :53.24 time in the 100, which shattered the school record, pool mark and Big 12 Championship Meet best.

Hedrick had a tough time coming up with words to describe Schindler’s swim, which was the fastest in college this season.

“I was in awe. It was awesome,” he said. “His final swim was one of the most dominating swims I’ve ever seen.”

Senior teammate Brian Roska shared the same vantage point. “It was one of the most impressive swims I’ve ever seen. To swim with him for four years and see that in his final race, it was something.”

“I just wanted to swim a good time and get ready for nationals. I’m pretty excited. I don’t know if it’s really sunk in yet,” Schindler said.

Schindler also placed third in the 200 breaststroke (2:00.20).

But for the senior co-captain, he said the highlight was claiming top spot with the help of three teammates in the 200 medley relay.

Brian Rogers, Schindler, Henrik Ingesson and Jeff Gahan broke the school record in the event with a time of 1:28.18 and took home first place in the process.

“The best was winning the medley relay,” Schindler said. “When you can do it in a group, it’s more fun.”

Ingesson said, “Everybody was so focused and wanted to swim fast. That was sweet.”

The clocking was the sixth fastest in the nation this year and will earn the team a place among the nation’s top 12 relays at the NCAA Meet.

Ingesson said the team will practice hard for the next two weeks and make some minor adjustments to shave off even more time.

Mitch McGinty and Joakim Dahl dazzled individually for the Cyclones. The men placed fourth (:47.83) and fifth (:47.91) respectively in the 100 butterfly. McGinty’s time also set a new ISU record.

The two ISU sophomores, along with Ingesson, who touched the wall in :48.27, will likely qualify for the national competition.

In the 200 butterfly, Lovre Franicevic reached for second with a school-best 1:46.87, and McGinty took third in 1:47.69.

Franicevic also took seventh place in the 200 freestyle in 1:40.12.

Freshman Josh Nogar set an ISU record with a time of 15:33.14 in the 1650 freestyle. Nogar’s performance was good for third place in conference.

Other finalists in the meet were freshman Peder Skoog, who grabbed seventh in the 200 backstroke in 1:49.94, and Mark Ritcey in the 100 breaststroke.

“We just had some really outstanding performances,” Hedrick said.

The five Cyclones expected to compete individually at nationals combine for the largest group to compete at the NCAA meet since Hedrick has been at ISU.

In all, seven Cyclone swimmers are expected to make appearances at the NCAA Meet in Auburn, Ala., on March 26-28.

Hedrick honored

ISU’s Trip Hedrick was named the men’s swimming coach of the year in the Big 12, his second coaching honor in the last three seasons.

Hedrick guided the Cyclones to a 10-0 dual record and a fourth place-finish at the conference championships this past weekend.

In 1995, he was named the Big Eight coach of the year after guiding ISU to the conference championship.

His athletes found Hedrick worthy of the honor.

“Trip is a very good coach,” Ingesson said. “He really deserves it because we did a really good job.”

Jay Schindler said it was good other people saw Hedrick’s coaching prowess.

“Trip is always coach of the year in my book. It’s great. He deserves it.”