Completed Event: Swimming and Diving versus Big 12 Duals on January 16, 2026 , , 5th, 781 points
Final
Swimming and Diving
Big 12 Duals
5th, 781 points
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Iowa State University Athletics
Cyclones Build Record Season Around One Word
03.17.2015 | Swimming and Diving
AMES, Iowa – There is a single word hanging in the Beyer Hall locker room, a concept that became the centerpiece to one of the most successful seasons in Iowa State swimming and diving history: the word is “believe.”
“Each year, the seniors come up with an idea that will define the season and where they want to go,” Iowa State head coach Duane Sorenson said. “We just took that idea all season long and kept building off of it.”
Assistant head coach Kelly Nordell took the theme one step further. Nordell explained to the team that a flock of geese flies faster and more efficiently when soaring in a V-shaped pattern. From that point, the “belieVe” factor evolved, and a team of swimmers and divers became the flock.
“Last year when we got third-place, a lot of our athletes didn't think we were good enough to get third, we were always going to be fourth or fifth and that's just where Iowa State was going to be,” Sorenson said. “After getting third-place and being in second-place for such a long time during the 2014 meet, then we said, 'Okay, we can do this. We can make this happen.'”
After holding second-place following day two of the 2014 Big 12 Championships, the Cyclones stumbled in the final sessions, taking home third. This year's senior class returned as vocal and emotional leaders, while bringing a high level of tenacity, which elevated their team to the best finish at a Big 12 Championship in program history.
“When you have great competitors like we do in our senior class, it really helps the rest of the team and it becomes contagious,” Sorenson said. “Learning how to compete at this level is a whole new experience because a lot of these kids, when they swam high school or club, were way out in front in every race. It's very different when somebody is in your face, and – like any sport in Division I – when somebody is in your face, you find out what you're made of.”
And the Cyclones did just that, standing up in the face of quality competition to record Iowa State's first top-two finish at a conference championship in 35 years. The coaches and athletes knew their goal was well within reach on the final day of the meet.
“We knew we were in position to really do something special. That prelim session on Saturday morning, we swam as well as we ever have,” Sorenson said. “Kansas swam well too, and we knew they were going to have a great session. We matched them well to keep our lead, and we almost put ourselves in a position where there was no way they could catch us.”
Even before the team's departure from Austin, Texas, Sorenson had already begun building a plan for next season, and that plan includes a repeat top-two finish at the 2016 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships. The returning athletes “belieVe” it could happen.
“We're now going to be the target of West Virginia, TCU and Kansas, “ Sorenson said. “I told the returners after the meet, getting second-place was easy. To get second-place again is going to be toughest thing of their lives.”
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