Iowa State swim and dive heads south to Texas this weekend for back-to-back duels. On Friday, the Cyclones head to Fort Worth for a matchup against the TCU Horned Frogs before traveling to Denton to battle the North Texas Mean Green.
The Cyclones are 3-2 on the season and are coming off a dominant win over Northern Iowa.
TCU Preview
Iowa State’s first conference duel of the year will feature a great test against TCU. The Horned Frogs have been up and down this year, and are most recently coming off of a second-place finish in the Art Adamson Invitational, falling to Texas A&M but beating Washington State, Utah and Incarnate Word.
Iowa State is 6-2 in the all-time series against TCU but was beaten 162-138 in the duel last year.
Senior diver Anna Kwong of the Horned Frogs is one to watch in the duel. She has had an impressive season up to this point and will look to follow up a win in the UT Diving Invitational in her last outing.
The Cyclones struggled at the Georgia Diving Invitational in their last outing, but have a deep roster of divers which will make for a great matchup.
While TCU doesn’t have any total standouts on the swim side, it has an extremely well-rounded team without a lot of weak events. In the aforementioned Art Adamson Invitational, the Horned Frogs placed second without winning a single event, which is a testament to how well-rounded the squad is. This should create opportunities for the Cyclones in some of their stronger events, like the 200m butterfly and 200m backstroke.
The story of the season so far for the Cyclones has been up and down, as they’ve crushed the smaller teams, but floundered against the big matchups against the SEC and Big 10 teams.
While it is hard to get a read on the true potential of this team, this duel will be a great preview of the Big 12 season to come for Iowa State, against a TCU team that will likely finish mid-pack in the conference.
The duel against TCU will take place in Fort Worth, Texas, at 5 p.m. Friday.
North Texas Preview
Although North Texas is a smaller program competing in the American Athletic Conference, it should not be taken lightly. The Mean Green are 3-1 in duels on the season.
It has been a long layoff for North Texas, with its most recent competitions being the House of Champions Invitational for the swim team, where they posted a sixth-place finish and the SMU Diving Invite. Both competitions took place in late November, and whether the gap in their schedule will result in better preparation or a slow start is yet to be seen.
The Cyclones have fared well against North Texas in the past. Iowa State has won dominantly both times the teams have met.
The Mean Green’s dive squad is led by junior Kamryn Wong. Before joining North Texas this season, she competed at Missouri, where she qualified for the NCAA Championships and finished third in the 3m event at the SEC Championships. In her most recent performance at SMU, she took home wins in both the 1m and 3m events.
While North Texas certainly has bright spots, and the back-to-back meet days for the Cyclones could have some effect on the team, Iowa State should look to bring home another dominant win against a smaller program, before gearing up for the postseason.
The showdown with North Texas will take place in Denton, Texas, at 1 p.m. Saturday.
