After a close loss to Nebraska in last Saturday’s meet, the Iowa State swimming and diving team will look to turn it around on Friday in the UNO-SCU Triangular meet. 

The Cyclones will face off against Omaha and St. Catherine University at 6 p.m. Friday at Beyer Pool, and this will be their first home meet of the season against another team.

Although they lost last Saturday, head coach Duane Sorenson said he was still happy with what he saw at the meet.

“I was pleased by our effort that we gave,” Sorenson said. “Like any sport, your first contest you find where your mistakes become glaring, and our challenge is to correct those mistakes.”

Those mistakes are things that Sorenson is hoping to fix during practice this week in preparation for Friday’s meet.

“It’s more attention to details,” Sorenson said. “We’re not really going to change with our practices, we’re just making our women more aware what they get to work on.”

Sorenson also said that while the athletes are working on fixing the little things, he wants to make sure that they don’t lose sight of all the things they have been doing well thus far and to keep doing those things.

“We had a lot of strengths and we did a lot of things right,” Sorenson said. “Let’s not lose sight of that as we go along, we’re just trying to progress from this meet and improve.”

With a sport like swimming and diving, races and wins can come down to even hundredths of a second, so fixing the little details can be the difference between a win and a loss. 

However, Sorenson thinks that this upcoming Triangular meet will be a chance to fix those mistakes and take the win. 

“I think we should be able to handle both teams,” Sorenson said. “Each team has a handful of outstanding individuals. It’s going to be some really good competition but we should have the better team depth.”

Iowa State has played Omaha multiple times before, and Sorenson said the Cyclones usually win. However, this is the first time Iowa State will play St. Catherine’s University, as they are a Division III team. 

“Normally division one teams don’t swim division three schools,” Sorenson said.

With the first home meet also brings excitement to the team, and it’s no different for this team, according to Sorenson.

“Excitement of our first meet,” Sorenson said about what he’s looking forward to for the first home meet. “Just getting up and racing against some very good individuals and trying to improve upon what we did last weekend.”

This meet will have two different heats for each event, and there is a chance to score no matter what heat the swimmer is in, it will be based off of the time of the swimmer. 

“You’re not only swimming against the people within your heat, you’re also swimming against the time,” Sorenson said. “You can’t just swim to win, you have to keep going, otherwise the person in the heat before could beat you.”

Another thing to note is that Michelle Schlossmacher Smith received a diving score last Saturday that qualified her for the NCAA Zone Diving Meet. Dana Liva qualified for it last year and will be looking to qualify again in the continuing season.