In sports, one often categorizes wins as "good" and losses as "bad."

But what about a "good" loss? Can such a phenomenon possibly exist?

There is no denying that after endless hours of both physical and mental training, no athlete enjoys defeat.

For the Harvard women's swim team, Saturday's 158-141 loss to undefeated Ivy rival Princeton showed that a "good" loss may be possible. Harvard  141 Princeton  158 Harvard  136 Penn  46

"It's hard to lose no matter what," co-captain Kristan Gately said. "But it was a great performance for us."

"We swam our season best times unshaved," coach Maura Costin Scalise said. "It showed me that we have a lot of depth."

In the first event of the meet, the 200 medley relay, the previously undefeated Crimson (5-1 Ivy, 7-2 overall) came out strong. Freshman Stephanie Lawrence, senior co-captain Deborah Kory, freshman Mary Naber and freshman Keiko Iwahara recorded the fastest time of the season, setting the pace for the remainder of the meet.

"Princeton expected to roll right by us and when we gave them a run, they froze for awhile," Costin Scalise said.

Junior Caroline Miller performed exceptionally, taking home first place finishes in both the 100 and 200 fly. Junior Greta steffenson also swam away with two titles, snatching the 500 and 1000 free.

Individual performances aside, it was a team effort.

"We swam great and everyone was happy with our swims," Iwahara said. "It wasn't anything that we did wrong--in the end, they had a slightly better line-up."

The Tigers were aided by impressive showings by two senior swimmers, who each took home three events.

Carwai Seto, the 1994 Ivy League Swimmer of the Year, took first place in the 100 and 200 breaststroke and the 200 IM.

Her teammate, Grace Cornelius, defeated the field in the 50, 100 and 200 free.

"Our team has more depth," Gately said. "But the way a dual meet is scored, you need to win events--in many events, we took second, third, fourth and fifth."

"As much as everyone hates to lose, for us it was a step in the right direction," Costin Scalise said.