LINCOLN, NEBRASKA — Iowa State swimming and diving opened up its 2026-27 season Friday night with a 197-101 loss to Nebraska at the Devaney Center Natatorium.

Despite the loss, Nebraska native junior Grace Swoboda picked up individual victories in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke.

Swoboda swam to her 100-yard victory with a time of 1:01.45, beating Nebraska’s Dominika Borkowska, who swam a time of 1:03.17. It was a rematch between the two in the 200-yard breaststroke, where Swoboda barely edged Borkowska by 0.01 seconds.

The Cyclones found great success on the diving boards, where they placed five in the top six in the 3-meter dive. Iona Moffat won with 287.03 points. Fellow Cyclone Maggie Bendell finished second with 282.30 points. Jade Hazes, Grace Marek and Abby Tollefson rounded out fourth, fifth and sixth for the Cyclones.

On the 1-meter board, Katie Malm led the Cyclones with a second-place finish, racking up 265.05 points. Jade Hazes got herself another fourth-place finish, and Maggie Bendell finished fifth.

Back in the pool, the Cyclones had several second- and third-place individual finishes. Piper Hagen finished third in the 200-yard freestyle, followed by Claire Dobrydney finishing fourth close behind.

Emma Kuhn showed a lot of promise for this Cyclone swim team as she added 11 individual points across her events. Kuhn placed third in the 100-yard backstroke, second in the 100-yard freestyle, and finally second in the 200-yard individual medley, just three tenths of a second behind Nebraska’s Marissa Laurin.

The Cyclones relays did well, placing second and third. The 200-yard medley relay consisted of Kuhn, Swoboda, Keirlyn Mullica and Kendall Schindler, and placed second behind an outstanding Nebraska squad. The 400-yard freestyle relay placed third with a time of 3:35.8, just four tenths of a second behind second place.

The Cyclones looked promising for their first meet of the season, and they will be back in action next weekend at the Florida State Invite on Friday and Saturday.