Iowa State’s Erin Cowan celebrated her 21st birthday by notching a career-best score in the three-meter dive.

Several other Cyclone swimmers also achieved season-bests as the ISU women’s swimming team swept Wisconsin-Green Bay and North Dakota in convincing fashion on Friday and Saturday.

“We swam really well in both meets,” Cyclone Coach Duane Sorenson said.

First, ISU took care of Wisconsin-Green Bay, routing them 144-99 on Friday.

“I was very pleased with the way we raced,” Sorenson said.

He later added, “We got real good performances from everybody and that’s what we needed to do to win the meet.”

Cyclone Angela Arias, winner of the 50 and 100 freestyles said, “We really stepped up and accomplished our goal.”

The Cyclones fell behind early in the meet but seized control with first and third place finishes by A-Lisa Miles and Kelly Lorenz in the 200 individual medley.

Miles’ time of 2:10.59 and Lorenz’s mark of 2:13.99 were both season bests.

Lorenz said, “We started to get a little behind at the beginning, but we knew we had a really strong second half.”

Strong performances by Arias, Miles, Lorenz and freshman Kim Reid paved the way for the Cyclones, who made a nice rebound from a big loss to the Nebraska Cornhuskers one week earlier.

ISU made full use of the momentum gained in the Green Bay victory to splash the North Dakota Fighting Sioux 143-85 out of the water on Saturday.

The Cyclones kicked off the meet with a victory in the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:59.81.

The relay team consisted of Arias, Lorenz, Reid and Mara Paape.

“We started off with our 400 medley relay winning a very close race, and that got the momentum going,” Sorenson said.

Contrary to the UWGB meet, the Cyclones dominated the first half against the Fighting Sioux, posting first, second and third place finishes in both the 1000 and 200 freestyle events.

Kelly Yates placed first for the Cyclones in the 1000 freestyle with a time of 10:59.32, while Lindsay Tempel won the 200 freestyle in 1:58.67.

Once again, Miles and Arias had impressive performances. Miles won both the 400 individual medley and 200 butterfly, and Arias claimed first in the 50 and 100 freestyles for the second time during the weekend.

Arias topped her season-best mark of :54.67 in the 100 free just set the previous day against UWGB. Her new personal record is :54.03.

The Cyclone diving team, led by Erin Cowan and Aleisha Kraft, also contributed to the squad’s success.

Cowan, who turned 21 on Saturday, made her birthday extra-special by winning both the one-and three-meter dives. She also achieved a career best score of 285.6 in the three-meter.

The score qualified her for the NCAA Zone Qualifying Meet, which determines who goes on to the NCAA Championships.

“My mom was here for my birthday, and she makes me dive really well when she’s here,” Cowan said.

“I was really happy with my meet today, I stayed really consistent, which helps me overall,” she later added.

Kraft was also influential in the Cyclone score, placing second to Cowan in the one-meter dive and third in the three-meter dive.

Her score of 261.075 in the one-meter also qualified her for the zone meet.

“I feel very excited; it’s really a big goal,” Kraft said.

She also said the diving team’s success can be attributed to the great support within the squad.

In sum, Sorenson said, “The goal of this meet was to match our times from last meet, and we did that and often improved on some times.”