The Cyclone women overcame a cold bus trip on Saturday to heat up the pool with a 158-139 victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes.

The results of the meet weren’t a surprise to ISU head coach Ramsey Van Horn.

“There was never a question of the outcome of the meet after the first race,” he said.

The Iowa State swimmers jumped out to a quick lead with first and third place finishes in the medley relay. The winning team of Leslie Gaeth, Tanya Henkels, Julie Bancroft and Tea Cerkvenik outdistanced the second place team by 1.5 seconds with a time of 149.05.

The Cyclones also placed well in the individual events. Christa Graper won the 100-free and Bancroft came from behind to win the 200-free in 1:54.60.

The 100-meter breast-stroke was a strong race for the Cyclones. Henkels won, while teammates Gina Lopezi and Angie Meiresonne placed fourth and fifth respectively. Lopezi and Meiresonne both had season best times in the event.

Weak spots for Iowa State included the 100-back, 200-butterfly, and one meter diving in which Iowa placed first, second, and third.

Fortunately, Iowa State was able to make up for those points with several strong performances in other events.

“We played all of our trump cards and they all showed up gold,” Van Horn said.

Cerkvenik won the 50-free in 23.97, which should rank her in the top 50 nationally. Cerkvenik and Arias went one and two in the 100-free.

Van Horn commended the first place performance of Katie Oien in the backstroke.

“Oien put one together like she has not done all year,” Van Horn said.

He was also impressed by Henkels’ race in the 200-breast.

“Tanya shifted it into a totally different gear,” Van Horn said.

“We swam the way every swim team wishes to swim. We had swimmers with lifetime best times. It was really a feather in the cap. That was the first time we’ve beaten them there in Iowa City since 1981,” Henkels said.

The meet was very close all the way through.

“The 100-butterfly was the one we needed to put it away,” Van Horn said.

The Cyclones didn’t disappoint him. Bancroft won it in 57.43 and Jami Jager placed third with 58.47.

Robin McCallister sealed up the win for the Cyclones with a second place finish in the 400-medley.

The 400-free relay of Arias, Oien, Bancroft and Cerkvenik won with a season best time of 3:33.06.

“We’ve never been 3:33 at this point in the season,” Van Horn said.

Forty-five out of a possible 48 season best times were set at the meet. Van Horn said the team really responded to the competition.