On the scoreboard, the NIU women’s swimming squad had very little with which to be encouraged.

On the stopwatch, first-year coach Jeanne Fleck found several reasons to be optimistic. On Friday evening, the University of Iowa skied to a 184-102 triumph while Iowa State University was a more congenial 131-94 victor on Saturday.

“On the scoreboard, it obviously wasn’t a good weekend. But knowing the difference in depth, what we saw in terms of times was encouraging,” Fleck said. “We’ve made progress with each week and if we can keep progressing at that rate, we’ll be in line to win the conference and place well in the Midwest Regional—those are our goals.”

Pam Jackson, Kim Bell and Judy Graham all drew praise from Fleck for having “outstanding times for this point in the season.” Against Iowa, Jackson was a solid second in the 50-yard freestyle while Bell won the 200-yard individual medley and Graham posted lifetime bests including a 2:37.06 in the 200-yard breaststroke.