Ames Today

The Iowa State Cyclones women's swimming and diving team opened their season on Saturday with a dual meet against Nebraska at Beyer Pool in Ames. Despite strong performances in several events, the Cyclones were defeated by the Huskers, who won with a final score of 197-103.

Head coach Matt Leach reflected on the team's performance, saying, "I thought with today being our first step in our long journey, we've been training fairly well. We've been swimming better than we were a year ago. Overall, we had really good energy, and I really enjoyed the fight we had even though we didn't put our hand on the wall first in some events. There were some pretty good events for us. I thought people that stood out today, obviously, Carlotta, she had a really good race in the 1000."

Carlotta Gazzola contributed to Iowa State's points by finishing second in both the 1000-yard and 500-yard freestyle races. In the 100 backstroke, Emma Kuhn, Lili Neisser, and Piper Hagen placed second through fourth to earn nine points for the team.

Grace Swoboda led Iowa State in the 100 breaststroke with a winning time of 1:04.01. Teammates Matilde Geromin and Abbi Crum followed closely behind to secure a sweep of the top three spots in that event. Geromin also achieved a personal best in this race.

In another strong showing for Iowa State in breaststroke events, Geromin won the 200 breaststroke with a personal best time of 2:20.77. Anja Peck finished second and Swoboda third as Iowa State again claimed all three top spots.

Kendall Mallers and Landrey Gold both set personal records in the 200 butterfly event.

On the diving boards, Kate Mitchell placed fourth in three-meter diving while Iona Moffat finished fifth in her debut for Iowa State. In one-meter diving competition, Maggie Bendell was fourth and Jade Hazes finished fifth.

Nebraska swimmers took first place in most other events including relays and freestyle races.

Looking ahead, Iowa State will host Illinois next weekend for their first meeting in eight years. The dual meet begins Friday evening at 5 p.m., with additional events scheduled for Saturday morning at 11 a.m.