The Iowa State women’s swim team finished second among six teams last weekend at the Iowa Invitational in Iowa City. Iowa won the meet with 916 points, with Iowa State finishing in second place with 750.5 points.

The Cyclones placed high in several relays and individual events.

The 200-free relay team of senior Tea Cerkvenik, sophomore Angela Arias, juniors Katie Oien and Julie Bancroft placed second in a close race by four tenths of a second.

The 400-medley relay and 200-medley relay teams also placed second. Both teams consisted of Oien, senior Tanya Henkels, Bancroft and Cerkvenik.

Iowa State women’s swim head coach Ramsey Van Horn commended Cerkvenik’s performance in the 200 medley relay.

“Tea was behind 12 feet when she dove in for her 50 meter sprint,” he said. “Tea had a really good meet.”

Cerkvenik had several other good races. She won the 50-free, 100-free and the 200-free. Teammate Christa Graper, a junior from Cedar Falls, finished close behind Cerkvenik to finish second in the 200-free.

The 800 free relay team of Graper, freshman Lindsay Tempel, Cindy Saylor and Robin McCallister also placed second.

“Robin came out with another good swim,” Van Horn said.

Some strong individual performances included Henkels with a second in the 200-breast, Bancroft with a third in the 100-fly and McCallister with a second place finish in the 400-IM.

In the diving scene, Janine Palczweis had her best performance of the year with a fifth place finish in the three meter diving event. In one meter diving, Aliesha Kraft placed fifth and Palczweis finished seventh.

Van Horn said he was pleased with the team’s performance but knows they can swim even stronger this weekend in the dual meet against Iowa.

“We didn’t show them all of our cards,” Ramsey said.

He described the meet as a “weekend to hone our skills and get them together as a team to prepare for this weekend.”

“This weekend was competition that really gets us back to racing after Thanksgiving break. Without it, next weekend would be flat,” Van Horn said.

The outcome of the meet against Iowa will depend on which people come up and swim at a higher level. It will be an exciting meet because both teams have different strengths, he said.

“It’s going to be a good meet, very close,” Van Horn said.

The Iowa meet will take place in Iowa City on Dec. 9 at 1:30 p.m.