The ISU Swimming and Diving team is attempting to collect a few wins this upcoming weekend against Illinois and Washington-St. Louis at Beyer Hall in Ames.

This weekend’s duals will be Iowa State’s second meet in a month. 

The swim team is recovering from its annual winter training camp trip in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where it spent four hours a day in the water working on speed and endurance.

“It was a full gambit of our training cycle,” said head coach Duane Sorenson. “I know our women are very tired, but I think we did a lot of great things there”. 

During the last meet against Iowa, freshman Haley Ruegemer swam the 1000-yard freestyle for the first time, taking second place with a time of 10:16:37.

“I was a little shocked,” Ruegemer said. “I didn’t know what I was doing going into it. I think there is definitely room for improvement. We are all trying to keep the momentum of the toughness of the trip and just put it towards this weekend.”

Iowa State swam against Illinois during the Big Challenge hosted in Topeka, Kan., before Thanksgiving. Iowa State fell short by 246 points, putting the Cyclones in fourth place and Illinois in third.

“It’s always been a competitive meet every time we’ve swam them the last couple of years,” Sorenson said. “[Illinois] really [doesn’t] have any weaknesses. They are strong, and they have a tremendous amount of depth. They are a solid team, we just have to be as competitive as we possibly can.”

Washington-St. Louis, a Division III school, does not typically swim against Division I schools like Iowa State. 

“They’ve got a couple of outstanding individuals, so they are looking to upgrade their competition,” Sorenson said.

Fridays meet against Illinois will start at 4:00 p.m. and Saturday’s meet against Washington-St. Louis will begin at 1:00 p.m. Both events will be at Beyer Hall.