Iowa State shifted the lineup and allowed several new faces to shine in a dual against Omaha on Friday. 

By experimenting with the lineup Iowa State head coach Duane Sorenson learned a lot about his team. The Cyclones won easily by a score of 180-79. 

“We found out some of our swimmer are doing much better than they thought,” Sorenson said. “They were very pleasantly surprised with the results.”

New faces in first

Junior Keely Tierney picked up her first win of the season in the 1000-yard freestyle. Tierney’s teammates Sydney Jackson and Brinley Horras, who each have one win in that event, did not swim the 1000 freestyle on Friday. 

The 200-yard Medley relay team of Emily Haan, Martha Haas, Carley Caughron and Maddie Ziegert that has 3 event wins so far this season did not compete against Omaha. The four were split in two relay teams that managed to take first and second. 

Breaststroker Alaina Brietbach won two events for the Cyclones on Friday. The sophomore captured her first and second wins of the season in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke events. 

Liz Richardson’s win the 100-yard backstroke was another season first win for Iowa State. 

“Seeing our kids who have been behind our ‘top’ kids get the recognition they deserve,” Sorenson said. “That was really nice to see.”

Fresh faces in first place proves Iowa State’s talent runs deep in swimming. 

Depth in Diving

Iowa State dove without team captain Michelle Schlossmacher Smith. The senior will be back soon, according to diving coach Jeff Warrick, but the rest of the diving squad stepped up to the challenge on Friday. 

No Omaha divers made the trip to Ames, however, Jayna Misra and Joscelyn Buss both posted zone qualifying scores. Misra dove for zone cuts in the 1-meter and 3-meter and Buss tallied her first career zone cut with a 289.85 in the 1-meter. 

Without a team leader in the lineup, Iowa State diving showed they can still compete fiercely on the boards. 

Another Challenge

Next, Iowa State’s schedule will split the swimmer and divers for two multi-day tournaments. Swimmers will be in Topeka for the Kansas Classic and divers head to the Mizzou Invite. 

The first tournaments of the 2021 season provide another test for Iowa State. 

“The next meet at the Missouri Invitational is going to be totally different,” Warrick said. 

Both the swimmers and the divers will need to bring their A-game against multiple high level opponents in tournament style. Coming off a 101-point win the squad will embrace another challenge and an opportunity to get better. 

“It’ll be good to get that experience for the Big 12 Championships and beyond,” Warrick said.