Friday night’s intrasquad meet for the women’s swimming and diving team was a close one, ending with the gold team beating the cardinal team 111-110.

The cardinal and gold meet was the first of the season for the swim and dive team and it was a start for showing what to expect for the Cyclones for the rest of the season.

Elynn Tan loses no ground from last year

Last year, then-freshman Elynn Tan was the Iowa State University Newcomer of the Year, as well as receiving All-Big 12 Second Team honors in the 50 yard freestyle and 100 yard butterfly.

Friday night’s meet showed she hasn’t slowed down her pace in the offseason. Tan placed first in the 50 yard freestyle and 100 yard butterfly at the meet, as well as helping her team place first in the 200 yard freestyle relay. 

“Elynn Tan did an outstanding job,” said Duane Sorenson, head coach. “She picked up where she left off last year.”

Freshmen impress

It can be hard for coaches to gauge how well freshmen will perform in their first collegiate meet of their career. The freshmen this year performed well in their first meet of the season but will still have to continue to impress and improve as the season goes on.

Trinity Gilbert bounced back and placed first in the 200 yard individual medley after her team came in second in the 200 yard medley relay. She was also the anchor for the first place team in the 200 yard freestyle relay.

“She didn’t have a very good 200 medley relay swim,” Sorenson said. “She got mad, so we know she’s a great competitor.”

Diver Jayna Misra placed first in the 3 meter diving event scoring 102.90 points on her two combined dives.

“One thing they did really well was coming in composed,” said Jeff Warrick, diving coach. “Everybody was composed today and they were prepared for the first meet of the season.”

Another freshman, Sophia Goushchina, swam well and anchored for her team which placed first in the 200 yard medley relay.

Close call

It was stiff competition this year at the cardinal and gold meet, with only one point being the deciding factor in who won and who lost.

Sorensen said a close meet like this makes an exciting one for both the coaches and the athletes.

“It was very exciting,” Sorenson said. “I had predicted the score was going to be 110 to 112, so I was pretty close and I’m not going to tell you who I thought was 112.”

Sorenson wants the meet to be as close as possible to make sure everyone knows where they are at for racing. They also want to know their time and what they need to continue to work on.

The gold team eventually took home the win, after they took second place in the final relay event and solidified their spot at the top.

Iowa State’s next home swimming and diving meet will be 6 p.m. Oct. 25 against University of Nebraska Omaha and St. Catherine University at Beyer Hall Pool after the Cyclones face Nebraska on the road Oct. 19.