Finishing the season within striking distance of an Ivy title, this year's women's swimming and diving team proved to be one of the strongest Harvard has seen in recent memory.

The team hasn't seen a conference title in seven years, and its performance at this year's Ivies finally brought it back into contention.

Falling short of the mark by scoring a mere 130 points less than Brown and 75 less than Princeton, Harvard made its presence known as a future force in women's Ivy League swimming.

The Crimson should have finished even closer.

Harvard disqualified itself in the preliminaries of the 200 freestyle relay, an event it was heavily favored to win.

Had it finished first as expected, these final point differences would have narrowed by over 40 points.

"We really felt like the title was within our reach," said junior Ana Cenanovic. "It was going to be tough to win, thanks to us all scoring and doing season-bests at Ivies we proved we have what it takes to compete with Brown and Princeton."

The Crimson inaugurated its new era by setting two team records at the Ivy League Championships, its first such feat in five years.

Freshman Sarah Murphy wowed the Princeton crowd at Ivies with her record-setting 55.98 performance in the 100-butterfly, while tri-captain Christen Deveney broke a record of her own at the same meet by clocking a 57.02 in the 100-backstroke.

"Seeing a senior and freshman both set school records was extremely inspirational for the rest of us," said junior Nancy Jo. "It was certainly a motivational force for us at Ivies. Plus, it really bridged the classes and united us."

February's Ivy Championships were also marked by two impressive event wins for Harvard. Junior Corie Calfee led a Crimson point scoring bonanza in the 100-breast-stroke, beating out two of her teammates in the finals to take the win.

Deveney, Calfee, Murphy and freshman Janna McDougall chimed in with a victory in the 400 medley relay, out-touching the Princeton contingency by one tenth of a second to help make up for the points lost in the previous relay disqualification.

The Crimson dual meet record wasn't too shabby, either.

Ending the season 8-3, 5-2 Ivy, the squad firmly placed itself as the third best team in the league. As with the Ivy Championship results, however, it impressively narrowed the margins of defeat from previous seasons in meets against Brown and Princeton.

Harvard's win over Yale was certainly a highlight of the season.

The team's traditional strength in the breaststroke events came through brilliantly, as junior Alexis Todor, sophomore Karen Milkosky, and freshman Liz Baxter outstroked the Bulldogs by recording an astounding sweep on the 200 breaststroke.

"Sweeping Yale was awesome said Todor. "The girls and I knew we needed the points to keep ahead. It felt great to come through for the team in the clutch."

The Crimson bolstered that lead by with another sweep in the 100-butterfly when Murphy and sophomore Pia Chock smashed the competition by over a second. By this point, Harvard completely controlled Yale and it only needed to cruise on to victory.

And tri-captain Courtney Swain topped off four great years with a huge upset victory over both the Bulldogs and Tigers. Out-flipping her competitors with rip after rip, Swain held off the intense charge of her rival divers to win the 3m board by about one point, with a total of 273.30.

Although slightly overshadowed by losses to Brown and Princeton, the Yale victory was the Crimson's first significant distancing from its traditional rivals.

The two losses to Ivy powerhouses Brown and Princeton certainly give this extremely young squad a goal for the next year. Coming off the impressive improvements from this season, those goals are not near out of reach.

The squad will lose essential team members Jocelyn Ludwick, Swain and Deveney, its current tri-captains. The triumvirate will be sorely missed, but the team hopes to fill in the gaps of their absence with strong incoming freshmen.

"Of course, we're really sad to see the seniors leave," said Jo. "But we have an amazing class of recruits coming in to compliment our returning strengths. Together I think we can bolster the reputation that the seniors helped to create."