The Iowa State men’s swim team began their 1996-97 swimming campaign with a strong finish in the Big 12 invitational and a dominating victory over Southwest Missouri State.

The team began the season Oct. 18 with a trip to St. Louis for the Big 12 Invitational. Men’s coach Trip Hedreick said that the new conference decided that the teams would meet in the beginning of the season for a relay meet and invitational.

The Cyclones came away with a fourth-place finish in the relay meet.

“Our focus was on the relay meet,” Hedreick said. “We were really pleased with the performance.”

Hedrick said that the team stood up well to the competition of the new Big 12 conference.

The addition of the four teams to the conference includes reigning national champion Texas.

“It’s a really nice situation to have,” Hedrick said. “It’s always nice to have a national champion in your conference.”

The Cyclones opened their home season against Southwest Missouri State this past Saturday.

Iowa State came away with first- place finishes in all but two events. Hedrick said that there a bunch of good swims turned in by a lot of different people.

In all there were three Cyclones who took home two individual first place finishes.

Southwest Missouri State Coach Jack Steck had nothing but positive things to say about the Cyclone swimmers.

“Trip has got a great team with impressive freshman,” Steck said in a press release.

Next up for the Cyclones is a trimeet against Kansas and Texas A&M in Lawrence on Nov 8.

Hedrick said that the team is not planning on training any differently for this meet.

“We’re in an extremely hard phase of our training cycle,” Hedrick said. “We just need to keep up the intensity.”

Hedrick said the team is really training for the Big 12 Championships and NCAA which does not take place until March.

The Cyclones sent four swimmers to NCAA last year and are looking to get more swimmers down there this year.

Hedrick said that the relays are the keys to getting to the NCAA meet.

“We’ve got a real competitive group of guys,” Hedrick said. He went on to say the team was probably picked to finish fourth or fifth in the conference.

“Our goal is to surprise as many people as we can,” Hedrick said.