For Colorado State, it was a slip of the tongue. For Penn State, it was a slap in the face. A careless comment from a CSU swimmer inspired the women's swimming and diving team to a decisive 81-59 victory over the Lady Rams Friday night at Princeton.

Two pool records fell as sophomore Kristin Lilly set a mark of 1:50.06 in the 200-yard freestyle and later helped Jane Kleiderlein, Jeanne Wilkins and Tracey Sheleheda swim a 1:37.04 in the 200 freestyle relay.

The Lady Lions felt they had something to prove after hearing a CSU swimmer say they were a warmup for the CSU-Princeton meet.

"I have never seen a team so fired up," Coach Bob Krimmel said. "I was concerned they were over-emotional."

"They overlooked us big time," Kleiderlein said. "We were mad. It was for vengeance."

Penn State surprised CSU when Erin Dittmar put in a second-place time of 10:27.84 in the 1000 freestyle, almost 18 seconds off her mark set earlier in the season.

"On paper CSU finishes first and second," Krimmel said, "but this was momentum. It told our kids we were ready to swim. It also sent a signal to CSU that 'What you see on paper, you weren't going to see tonight.' "

After falling behind early, the Lady Lions rallied with Lilly's record swim, then tied the meet with Beth Haas' 1:07.69 win in the 100 breaststroke and Kristen Elias' 2:06.83 200 butterfly, her 24th consecutive triumph in the event.

Lilly continued her excellent swimming by taking the 50 freestyle in 23.92. She followed this with a 51.66 in the 100 free to win all four of her races in the meet.

The Lady Lions began to pull ahead with Lisa Maximo's 2:10.01 in the 200 backstroke, Haas' 2:25.28 in the 200 breast, plus the one-two duo of Elias (57.47) and Deb Wilder (59.21) in the 100 fly.

With the meet still on the line, controversy arose in the individual medley. The race was scheduled to be a 200-yard sprint, yet right before the start of the contest, the CSU coaches wanted a 400 IM.

"We were behind the blocks ready to go, but the next moment we weren't quite ready," Maximo said. "It's a totally different event -- you go out and make yourself adjust to it."

"They tried for the 400 IM to help them, but our kids rose to the occasion," Krimmel said.

Elias (4:34.18) and Maximo (4:37.29) led the way as Penn State overcame the situation to build an insurmountable lead.

In the final race the second record fell.

"The last relay was typical of the whole meet. It's CSU's bread and butter (No. 6 in 1988s NCAA Championships). Kristin Lilly touched her (Amy Brookover) out in the end," Krimmel said.

"We weren't even going for the record," Kleiderlein said, "but the relay was great."

Other Lady Lions to star were Jill Fretz in the 200 and 500 free, Denise Sonntag 100 and 200 back and Amy Schmidt in the one-meter diving.

"This was a real momentum thing. It would have been sort of a downer even if we would have swam well and lost, but we won the meet. It's a real lift," Krimmel said.

The team is off until the Eastern Championships held Feb. 23-25 at McCoy Natatorium.