The Iowa State men’s swimming team opened its competitive season with a second place finish at the Big 12 Invitational on Friday night.

The men were led by a first-place finish in the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:32.90.

The relay team consisted of Johan Andersson, Jay Schindler, Henrick Ingesson and Bob Bredice.

“We were real pleased,” Trip Hedrick, men’s swimming coach, said of the team’s performance. Hedrick said the group swam with “real consistency the whole night.”

The consistency showed up in ISU’s strong second-place finishes in the 300 butterfly relay, 300 breaststroke relay, 400 medley relay, 200 freestyle and 400 medley relay.

The team totaled 46 points, second to Texas, who garnered 65 points.

Hedrick said the six teams in the Big 12 with Division I swimming programs presented challenging competition. He gave high praise to the victorious Texas Longhorns, who he said would be his early pick to claim the national championship.

Hedrick complimented the swims of senior leader Bredice. “Bob Bredice sprinted extremely well,” he said.

Bredice, who competed in two individual events and three relays, said he was pleased with his weekend. He thinks the relay teams look stronger at this point in the season than they did at the same time last year.

He said it is hard to single out individual performances because “overall, all the swimmers had good swims.”

Bredice said, “I was really happy with my relay swims.” He set some lifetime bests over the weekend.

He agreed with Hedrick that the competition was tough. The meet was filled with close races and fast times.

In addition, Hedrick said freshman Peder Skoog had a successful swim in his first collegiate meet. He said Skoog showed improvement as the weekend progressed.

Hedrick said the first meet of the year was a chance for the ISU team to “get out and get after it” after practicing hard.

It also served as a confidence builder going to the upcoming Friday meet against Missouri, Hedrick said.

Bredice said the team’s performance at the Big 12 meet “shows us that we can swim with anybody in the conference.”

Despite the fact Missouri finished sixth of the six teams over the weekend, Hedrick said he expects the dual meet to be filled with “great intensity and great competition.”

He said he hopes to see a strong, supportive crowd similar to fan support given at the ISU intrasquad meet last week. He said people enjoy watching his swimmers because they are intense competitors.

“We’re looking forward to it. It’ll be a lot of fun,” Hedrick said.

Bredice also said he would like to see a big crowd as well for weekend meet. “It’s pretty exciting. More exciting than you think. [It’s a] great chance to see some really fast swimming.”

The men’s team dives in this Friday at 5 p.m. in Beyer Hall.