The Iowa State swimming and diving team won its first Big 12 meet at Beyer Hall Friday afternoon when they defeated TCU by a score of 196-103, and South Dakota by 227-71. Today’s victory has them at 1-0 in conference, 3-1 overall.

Kasey Roberts, Martha Haas, Mary Kate Luddy and Laura Miksch got the first win for the Iowa State in 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:45.04. Haas, a freshman, gelled well with the seniors and got her first victory in a official meet.

Keely Soellner got the first individual victory for the Cyclones in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:28.89.

Senior Silqi Luo continued last meet’s perfect performance and picked up her second individual win in the 200-yard freestyle with 1:52.47. For the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard butterfly, Harper Emswiler and Luddy got first place, respectively.

Freestyle still has always been a dominant event for Iowa State and it continues to be. Miksch, the school record holder, had the large advantage in the 50-meter freestyle and got first in the race (23.74). Anna Andersen and Luo took the top-two slots in 100-freestyle with a time of 52.11 and 52.53.

Luddy transferred her main race from freestyle to butterfly this season. She took first in both the 100-yard and 200-yard butterfly.

Before this meet, head coach Duane Sorenson had disclosed there was an adjustment in races for Luddy. Certainly, Luddy did a successful job today and helped Iowa State win the event.  

For the diving team, Sydney Ronald took first place in the one-meter springboard with a score of 265 and it secured her a spot in the NCAA Zone Diving Championships. She also took second on the three-meter board. Dana Liva took third place in the one-meter springboard with a 234.9, but it was just an exhibition dive and didn’t effect team scoring.

Diving coach Jeff Warrick was satisfied with the performance of the divers. Especially for Ronald, she developed a lot from the first meet with Nebraska.

Last year, Iowa State had compatible scores with TCU in many events, but in today’s meet, the difference in points was 91. All the achievement was resulted from team effort.

Eight different women won in an individual event. It means the team is developing completely and doesn’t depend on individuals to win the meet.

Sorenson believed it was an interesting and exciting meet and it would give the whole team more confidence to proceed the next competition.

Tomorrow, the diving team goes to Minnesota for the Minnesota Diving Invitational. After that, the divers are going to Missouri’s Mizzou Diving Invite from Nov. 16-18.