One week after the Iowa State swimming and diving team faced a tough loss in Morgantown, West Virginia, they will host North Texas and University of Northern Iowa in a triangular meet.

The meet will begin at 5 p.m. Friday and continue at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Coach Duane Sorenson said all three teams will be competing at the same time against each other, and half the meet will be completed on Friday and the other half will be on Saturday. Sorenson said that since there will be two days of events, they are adding on some extra events as well.

“We’re adding on the 400 IM and the 400 freestyle relay will be done after the 50 freestyle and after diving’s completed,” Sorenson said. “Then on Saturday we’re adding the 400 medley relay to start the meet then we’ll finish up with the 200 freestyle relay at the end, it’s gonna be 19 events versus the 16 that we normally do.”

In Saturday’s meet against West Virginia, Iowa State lost out on first place by hundredths of seconds, something Sorenson said might’ve been due to the new pool at West Virginia, however Sorenson also said the Cyclones would be focusing on the small details — like turning through the walls and kicking faster — in practice this week. 

Iowa State has played the University of Northern Iowa before, and Sorenson said the Cyclones have been very successful against them in the past, however this will be the first time outside of the Kansas Classic that the Cyclones will be facing off against North Texas.

North Texas has been in the Classic the past two years where the Cyclones saw them, and beat them both times, the first of which Sorenson said wasn’t as close, and Sorenson said he is looking forward to playing them in a dual meet.

“They’ve got very good individual swimmers,” Sorenson said. “We’re gonna have to be on the top of our game to race against them and beat them.”

The two day meet will also give the Cyclones another chance to get the routine down for the Big 12 Championships that are coming up in less than a month. Sorenson said after the meet is over Friday night, the athletes will need to do their cool down, get a healthy meal in, and then get a good night’s rest before getting up and warming up for the meet the next morning, which will be much like the Big 12’s routine.

Iowa State already had back-to-back meets earlier in the season in November against South Dakota and then Rutgers the next day, as well the Kansas Classic where they competed over multiple days, so the routine should be nothing new to them, but Sorenson said it’s all about getting the right recovery in place.

Sorenson said this will be a competitive meet and that both teams coming have some very good swimmers, but that Iowa State has the upper hand in diving.

“Our strength against both teams is going to be diving,” Sorenson said. “Our divers are quite a bit better on paper right now than their divers.” 

Iowa State will face off against North Texas and University of Northern Iowa at 5 p.m. Friday and continue at 10 a.m. Saturday, both at Beyer Pool.