In the lead up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, one of the larger story lines related to swimming was the use of Speedo's LZR Racer swimsuits by a substantial number of athletes. With these suits, world record times were dropping like flies and everyone not wearing them was at a competitive disadvantage.

In a much smaller case, another Speedo product, the Fastskin swimsuits, caused some noise at Friday's women's swimming meet at Spieker Aquatics Complex, where No. 12 USC (5-0, 4-0 in the Pac-10) edged No. 4 Cal (4-3, 3-2) 152.5-147.5 .

Standout Trojan freshman Katinka Hosszu donned Speedo's creation and had a remarkable impact, scoring 27 points individually at the meet.

"This was the first time I put on the Fastskin," Hosszu said. "I have never swam in Fastskin before because ... it's hard to put on."

Hosszu joked that she previously thought the amount of effort that went into putting on the skintight suit would negate any positive effects it would have in terms of reducing her times.

Turns out she was wrong, as she won all three of her individual events-the 200-yard butterfly, 1000y freestyle and 500y freestyle-and set personal records in all but the 500y freestyle, which was her final event of the day.

A native Hungarian, Hosszu remarked that along with the suit, she was spurred on by the crowd's cheering.

"In Hungary no one cheers, and I don't really like to swim there," Hosszu said. "I'm kind of afraid because I'm going back to swim in the Hungarian Nationals and it's going to be too quiet for me."

Right behind her in both of the longer races was Cal junior Lauren Boyle. With less than a two-second difference between her and Hosszu, Boyle was left with a bitter taste.

"I think I did well to stick with her during the race," Boyle said. "They were wearing suits so that sort of gave them a slight advantage."

Suits or no suits, the Bears made sure there was no such issue the next day when they came out strong against No. 16 UCLA (4-4, 2-4).

Boyle came away with the 500y win along with a second-place finish behind senior Dana Vollmer in the 200y free.

The biggest story of the day was the final event of the day: the 200y freestyle relay. Madison Kennedy, Hannah Wilson, Liv Jensen and Vollmer teamed up to deliver the fastest 200y relay ever swam at Spieker Aquatics Complex in a time of 1:31.49. The mark also made the NCAA "B" cut.

"When we put our minds to something, we really can go get it," said junior Alexandra Ellis, who claimed a victory in the 100y breaststroke and swam a leg on a different team in the 200y freestyle relay. "It's exciting to see it happen and know that it's only January, and we're just going to get so much better. So hopefully that record will be broken against Stanford."

Tags: TERI MCKEEVER, CAL WOMEN'S SWIMMING, DANA VOLLMER