If you can't beat them, join them.

The No. 24 Penn State women's swimming and diving team heeded this advice on its two-week training trip to Florida, where it joined forces with SEC powerhouse Florida to gain valuable training and experience heading into conference meets later this month.

In the process, the swimming portion of the team helped pick up the Nittany Lions' first two victories of the season, defeating No. 19 South Carolina 144-98 and previously ranked Tennessee 140-103 in a double-dual meet at Carolina Natatorium. Meanwhile, the divers crossed the border into Athens, Ga., where they competed in the Georgia Invitational.

The swimmers hit the water kicking, taking first in seven events, including strong efforts from sophomores Courtney Stanchock and Deidre Dlugonski, who each won two events. Dlugonski grabbed first in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle, while Stanchock won the 200-yard individual medley and the 200-yard breaststroke. Overall, the Lions placed in the top three of each event.

To say the trip went well would be an understatement, even though the team's trip to the Capital One Bowl ended with the football team's defeat.

"All in all, it was a very successful trip, from a training perspective and also from a team bonding perspective," said Penn State head coach Bill Dorenkott. "This group really became more cohesive in Florida and that was a concern going into the trip."

Senior Susan Janoski echoed the feelings of Dorenkott, saying that the team bonding helped both in and out of the pool.

"We all became so much closer as a team," Janoski said. "We realized our goals and what we need to do to get them. It really helped out a lot and showed this weekend. We came out and raced well, which is definitely because we were one team."

Unlike the swimmers, the Lion diving squad faced some adversity during its trip to Florida. Fighting off inclement weather and some rust on their dives, the Lions managed a respectable showing at the diving invitational in Georgia. Freshman standout Lisa Silvestri paced the Lions in both the one and three-meter springboard events, placing 11th on the one-meter board and 15th on the three-meter board out of a group of 45 divers. Freshman Alison Riccobono and sophomore Corey Pagnotta also finished in the top 30 of each event as well.

"The training part went really well," said head diving coach Craig Brown, "I thought we competed pretty rusty, but we got a good number of dives in and got to dive against the whole SEC conference. It was a good experience."

With conference meets coming up in two weeks, including a trip to Indiana and Michigan State, a trip like this could not have come at a better time.

"Our hope is to be just peaking right at Big Tens," Brown said.