In past years, the women's swimming and diving team might have been more adversely affected by an early January trip to Columbus, Ohio to face the Buckeyes. The Lady Lions might have been sick of traveling after returning from winter training in Florida.

But this year was different. Instead of training in warm, sunny Florida over the semester break, the Lady Lions practiced at home -- they visited their families for the holidays, and then returned to University Park to swim in the friendly waters of McCoy Natatorium.

Based on Saturday's performance -- a convincing 172-128 Penn State victory -- the Lady Lions may want to train at home more often. By winning both relay events and several other races, the No. 23 Lady Lions (5-1) upset the No. 21 Buckeyes (4-3) Saturday afternoon.

"It was a big win for us," Coach Bob Krimmel said. "It was just a great team effort. Our kids stepped up and got the job done. One of the things the Ohio State coach said to us after the meet was that they had the individuals, but our kids had really put in a total team effort."

While the Lady Lions' combined efforts spelled victory, some swimmers had particularly excellent individual performances. Freshman Carmen Kondra continued to have great swims in her first season. Against the Buckeyes, Kondra won the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events and finished second in the 200 free. The freestyler from Canada won the 50 in 24.16, only two-hundredths of a second ahead of teammate Deni Rudy.

"I felt good in the 50 and 100," Kondra said. "But my first race was the 200, and I was nervous after our winter training. I didn't know if I had enough to get through it. I used my head to get through the next two races. After the first race, I had confidence. My times were good for now."

Rudy also finished second in the 100 free, once again just behind Kondra. Junior Lisa Pastrana took the 200 backstroke in 2:02.59, just reaching the edge of the pool before Ohio State's Jennifer Thompson (2:02.94) in what Krimmel called a race between "two of the conference's top backstrokers."

That swim by Pastrana set a new Mike Peppe Aquatic Center Pool Record. The Annapolis, Md., native also barely beat Thompson in the 100 backstroke (57.91 to 58.55).

Perhaps the most important events of the meet were the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle events. In the 50 and 100, Penn State swimmers claimed the top three spots, and the Lady Lions took first, second and fourth place in the 200. With those finishes, Penn State outscored the Buckeyes 47-10, opening a gap which Ohio State could never close.

"Between me, Deni, Sarah (Duttera), Karen (Van Tassel), and Kim (Kephart), we like to go 1-2-3 whenever we can," Kondra said. "It's good for us and good for the team when we do that. Being a team is probably one of our strong points. One of our goals going into the meet was to swim like a team and keep the team together."

The team did stay together, starting off the second half of its season with a conference win on the road.

"From a coaching standpoint, I couldn't be more pleased with the way the team handled training and everything," Krimmel said. "I could not be happier with the job they did over the break both here and at home. I'm very pleased, but there are a lot of steps to go."