Women’s Coach Duane Sorenson said every time the women’s swim team gets in the water, it is a new experience.

Fortunately, he also said every time the swimmers dive into the pool they are clocking a personal or seasonal best time.

This weekend was no exception.

The Cyclone team saw some bright spots in its weekend although it lost a home meet to Missouri and an away meet to Minnesota.

Sorenson explained half of the team is new and the intense traveling and competition are what the women learned about this weekend.

The 400 medley relay consisting of Kelly Lorenz, Kim Reid, Mara Paape and Angela Arias started the Friday meet with a first-place finish in a time of 4:00.56.

Iowa State’s Jen Marsters, sophomore distance swimmer, also swam well this weekend, registering a personal best time in the 1000 free against Missouri.

“I did not feel like I was going that fast because my [1000 free] felt so smooth,” Marsters said. “We have implemented a lot of pace work in our training this year.”

She explained that even though the team is in a very hard cycle of training, the distance swimmers remained focused on how they can successfully compete in the long races.

Marsters said Missouri was forced to redo its line-up after the 500 freestyle because the score was so close. Missouri led 65-57.

The divers kept the margin to a minimum going into the final section of the meet with Cyclone Aleisha Kraft winning the one-meter and three-meter diving events. Erin Cowan was third on both boards.

The divers contributed 26 points to the final score of the meet, but it was not enough to hold off Missouri. The final score was 155-88.

The Cyclone team traveled to the University of Minnesota on Saturday morning to compete against the Gophers.

Sorenson said traveling can be very tiresome for his new swimmers.

“They swam three-fourths of each race, but you could tell at the end of the race that Friday night caught up to them,” said Sorenson. “This showed our lack of experience with having meets back to back. But, Kim Reid still broke a meet record in the 100 breaststroke in a 1:06.67.”

Marsters also had a strong showing. She achieved a season-best in Minneapolis.

Minnesota did not swim their All-American swimmers against the Cyclones, but that does not take away from the meet score or the Reid’s meet record. The final score was Minnesota 190, ISU 104.

Sorenson said the tough traveling and scheduling will better prepare the swimmers for the conference championships at the season’s end.

He said all he can ask is that his swimmers step up, swim to their abilities every time and control the factors they can. He said time will take care of the rest.

The women’s swimmers’ next home meet is scheduled for Nov. 8 at 5 p.m. against Illinois State University.