The 1997 season officially started for the Iowa State women’s swim team on Friday night with the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Invitational at the University of Nebraska.

The ISU women placed sixth in the team standings with 15 points. Nebraska, Texas and Texas A&M took the top three spots at the meet with 55, 54 and 49 points, respectively.

Women’s swim coach Duane Sorenson said his team is aware of the high level of competition that the five other conference teams present.

Despite finishing the meet in last place, Sorenson said ISU is seeing improvement. “The team is more competitive in the conference than last year at this time,” he said.

Sorenson is not the only one who is seeing a more competitive squad this year.

Coaches from other conference schools also have taken notice. Sorenson said coaches came up to him and commented about how the Cyclones have progressed.

“Actions speak for themselves,” Sorenson said. “The girls were really excited when I relayed the message from the other coaches to them.”

He said the swimmers are focusing on their times, not how fast the other teams are swimming.

“Overall, right now the times for the swimmers are right on from the intrasquad,” Sorenson said.

The top finisher for the Cyclones was freshman Kim Reid. Reid finished fourth in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:06.90. She also led off the 300 breaststroke relay with a 1:06 split. Michelle Sexton, Maria-Eve Trenblay and Reid placed fifth in the relay.

Reid’s split time of 1:06 in her 100 breaststroke leg of the 400 medley relay helped the relay team of Kelly Lorenz, Mara Paape and Linsey Tempel take fifth place.

Like her coach, Reid said she is concerned about her own times, not the times of her opponents.

“I never think about who I am swimming against. It just does not matter to me,” Reid said. “Who cares who is in the next lane. I have swam against Olympians and beat them. I care more about going fast times than beating a specific person.”

The team was fired up at the meet, Sorenson said. He said it was a good experience for everyone, especially the freshmen.

“The freshmen learned what traveling with a university team is all about,” Sorenson said. “It was a late meet on Friday night and they had to get up on Saturday and perform again.”

The swimmers are looking forward to another busy weekend, starting Friday night against Missouri at 5 p.m. at Beyer Hall.

The team hopes for great fan support for the start of its Big 12 Conference home schedule.

ISU then travels to the University of Minnesota for a meet on Saturday at 4 p.m.