The Radcliffe swim team lost a close meet to Dartmouth Saturday, despite stellar performances by Laurie Downey and captain Maureen Murphy.

Downey swam in four events and copped first place finishes in all of them. Downey bested her Dartmouth foe by three seconds in the 50-yard backstroke, and set a new team record of 26.76 seconds for the 50-yard freestyle. She won the 100-yard freestyle with a respectable time of 57.41 seconds.

The biggest challenge for Downey came in the 400-yard freestyle relay, in which she swam the last leg. The relay team of Murphy, Sue Vassallo, Sue Sawyer and Downey was behind before Downey swam the last lap in 56.5 seconds, almost a second better than her performance in the individual 100-yard freestyle.

Captain Maureen Murphy provided some inspiration for the team by taking first places in the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle, which she swam in 6:16.85, her best time.

"We looked pretty bad in the beginning of the meet. We were a little stale because we hadn't swum in a meet since December," coach Stephanie Johnson said yesterday. "Towards the end of the meet we swam well."

Diver Kathy Lindenthal took the one-meter diving with a score of 185.35. In the 50-and 100-yard breaststroke, freshman Nancy Danoff took a second and third, while Sue Sawyer took two second places and Jane McNamara took two thirds in the butterfly events.

Radcliffe almost salvaged a tie by placing second and third n the 100-yard breast-stroke. After the first 50 yards, the Radcliffe swimmers were 1-2, but in the end they came up short, placing third and fourth.

The three-meter diving competition also could have put Radcliffe into a tie, but that event was cancelled for lack of time because the men's meet had to begin.