This is something the entire team has been working toward all season. The anxiety and excitement have been building for months in advance, but this season seemed to follow the same pattern as last season.

The culmination is the swimming and diving Big 12 championships, and the Cyclones feel well prepared.

Sophomore Kasey Roberts has some big memories from last year in Austin, Texas. Roberts broke two school records that week in the 200-yard breaststroke and 200-yard individual medley.

“It got everyone excited,” Roberts said. “I was excited coming out of the pool because I knew I was going to have a good finals.”

The excitement carried over to finals when she broke the record again with an even faster time.

“That night, I just completely went for it,” Roberts said. “It was a really fun way to end Big 12’s freshman year and get excited for this year.” 

The team took second place last year and can repeat that performance again this year if they can beat the Jayhawks. 

“We know that’s going to be a challenge with Kansas ahead of us,” Sorenson said. “Right now Kansas is the favorite for second place.” 

The Jayhawks out-swam the Cyclones in the last ISU regular season home meet this year, but seemed to be repeating what they did last year.

“This kind of happened last year, where they kind of walked all over us at this meet, then we came to Big 12s and it was an events-type meet,” Sorenson said.

The Cyclones hold a 2-1 record in the Big 12 conference this season, repeating the same record they had coming into the 2015 Big 12 championship.

Roberts wants to use her experience from last year to help her this year. She believes knowing how the schedule works and how it works with her life outside of the pool during the wee, really aids with nerves and excitement.

“Experience has been really helpful in preparing for what I need to do in practice, what I need to do in the Kansas meet and the West Virginia meet to get into the mindset,” Roberts said.

The team notices that Sorenson gets very excited around this time in the season, which, in turn, pumps up the team.

“You can just tell he’s just excited to watch us race,” Roberts said.

Sorensen often repeats the fact that the entire season was used to gear up for this major event and every accomplishment pushes the team to do better.

“We put everything on the line,” Sorenson said. “We focus a lot on great performances and a lot of excitement.”