Swimming and Diving Honors Jasmine Weiland's Mother With Specialty Caps at First Home Meet

As the Iowa State swimming and diving team kicks off their 2023-24 season on Saturday, Oct. 14 against Nebraska, the team will wear pink suits along with a silver and pink cap to honor survivors and those who have lost their lives in the fight against cancer.

The silver and pink caps that the team will wear have a special meaning for senior swimmer Jasmine Weiland who designed the caps to honor the memory of her mother Dustina Weiland.

In 2017, Dustina was driving home from one of Jasmine's meets when she noticed a lack of vision in her eye that forced her to visit doctors and neurologists.

"She was an occupational therapist so she knows a lot about anatomy and she immediately knew something wasn't right." Weiland said.

Dustina was diagnosed with stage two glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer that is incurable. Dustina battled with this form of cancer for almost three years before passing away in late 2020.

For Weiland, a freshman swimmer for Iowa State during the 2020-21 season, she knew the process of not only grieving her loss, but also being a student-athlete at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and not spending large amounts of time with the team due to restrictions that would make all the more challenging to overcome.

"I did not tell the team for two weeks after she died so I could heal and grieve. The team was in the middle of the COVID restrictions so we didn't get the chance to spend a lot of time together and didn't get to know all my teammates." Weiland said.

When Weiland revealed what had happened, it was an immediate sign for the team and coaches to be there for her every step of the way throughout her grieving process.

"She was really quiet about her mom's illness and passing, but then she gave a heartfelt talk to the team and the team stepped up to help her immediately," head coach Duane Sorenson said. "Her teammates gave a lot of love and support to her to help get through some of that heartache and while that doesn't fix everything, she had people to lean on and take care of her which is incredibly important."

The culture of the team built by coach Sorenson, coach Warwick and coach Nordell was a huge draw and a reason why Weiland came to Iowa State in the first place.

"I had one conversation with Kelly Nordell, our assistant coach, and I knew I wanted to be here. I knew I wanted the Cyclone experience because of how united the team was, how supportive the community is and all the resources I could get," Weiland said.

The unity and support that pushed Weiland to join the program proved to be a powerful thing when she needed the team's support.

The team made donations in honor of Weiland's mother to brain cancer research and when the time came for the swimming and diving team's annual breast cancer awareness meet, they found a special way to honor her memory.

"We usually have a breast cancer awareness meet every year," Weiland said. "Coach Sorenson let me know that we were doing a brain cancer cap and the seniors at the time decided to do it in honor of my mom."

The caps were special not only to Weiland but coach Sorenson who wanted to honor people like Weiland's mother who are affected by all different types of cancer. Sorenson and Weiland collaborated on making a cap for this year's meet and chose a silver and pink cap for the team.

"It just brings more knowledge to brain cancer because lots of people know what pink stands for," Sorenson said. "Having silver as the main color will make it stand out more and it adds another way to help honor her mother."

The cap not only serves as a way for Weiland, the team, and her family to honor Weiland's mother but also raise awareness surrounding brain cancer and the battle that people who fight it go through.

"It's really special to me and helps me to stay connected with her but also gets the word out there that brain cancer is very common," Weiland said.

As the team starts their season and Weiland starts her senior and potentially last season for Iowa State, she will look to be a leader on the team, have personal best times and make her family proud.

Looking at Weiland's work inside the pool and out in the community, there is no doubt she will be able to complete whatever goal she puts her mind to.