Following a break-in competition for both the Iowa men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams, the Hawkeyes are back in the pool this weekend as Big Ten rival Minnesota comes to Iowa City.

The meet begins at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center.

“I’m very, very excited,” Will Myhre said. “The team and I are really looking forward to it. We expect the best with a win.”

In the dual-meet team rankings by CollegeSwimming.com, both Iowa’s men’s and women’s teams are in the No. 24 spot while the Gopher men are ranked No. 27, and the women are No. 21.

“It’s always a great meet, and there’s a lot of new faces in both programs,” head coach Marc Long said. “They’ve had some meets already against some really high-caliber teams in Florida and Florida State. It’s just fun to have these traditional rivalries.”

Saturday’s meet also provides a stage where the younger swimmers can prove themselves in competition.

“We’re just not quite sure where everybody is going to blossom,” Long said. “So, we’ll be still trying out lineups and putting people in different positions, just getting a feel for things early in the season.”

The team is confident that they can use recent improvements and come out with a victory this weekend.

“I’m pretty sure we’re going to get the win,” Joe Myhre said. “It’s been pretty close in the past, but we’ve grown a lot as a team recently, and I think our times are there we’ve got the hard work and the talent. So, it’ll be a good meet.”

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Joe Myhre also attributes the team growth to the Hawkeyes’ new freshman class and its level of hard work and dedication.

“I think it has a lot to do with the freshman class coming in,” Joe Myhre said. “Them as a whole have kind of brought a whole new level to our team as far as racing, preparing and training goes. I think that we really needed that, and we’ve been missing that.”

In last year’s dual meet with Minnesota the Hawkeye men and women fell to the Gophers 158.50-141.50 and 189.50-109.50.

On the women’s side, returning athletes Kelsey Drake, Jayah Mathews and Sarah Schemmel all posted individual wins in that meet, where Iowa also beat South Dakota State.

Drake won the 100 and 200-fly, Mathews was first in the 1 and 3-meter springboard diving events, and Schemmel was victorious in the 50-free.

Returners Michael Tenney and Daniel Swanepoel were part of the victorious 400-medley relay team in last year’s clash with the Gophers. Tenney also won the 200-fly. Anze Fers Erzen also won the 400 individual Medley.

After Saturday’s contest, the Hawkeye women will host Michigan for a Big Ten dual at 2 p.m. Nov. 1. The men will compete Nov. 2 when they travel to Bloomington, Indiana, for a double dual with Big Ten rivals Michigan and Indiana at 8 a.m.