Someone important once said that "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step."

For the women's swimming and diving team, several steps were taken this weekend at the Ivy Championships to bring home the conference title in the future.

The Crimson had hopes of winning the championship title this year, but finished a respectable third with 656.5 points. Princeton captured the victory with 794 points, followed closely by Brown at 747 points. Yale took the fourth place position--well behind the top three schools--with 466.5 points, while the rest of the league followed behind the Bulldogs.

The journey to the top of the Ivy League wasn't completed this year, but the team has bounded toward that goal for the next few seasons with several breakthrough performances.

"We had high expectations going into the weekend," said senior co-captain Sue Machorek. "We wanted to win the meet, but we aren't disappointed because we turned in solid performances and stuck right with Princeton and Brown."

While the team was not able to fulfill its aspirations, it did have several standout performances that kept it in the running for the title. In fact, the team boasts four swimmers that made the finals in all three of their events.

Freshman Lovisa Gustafsson led the pack, winning the Ivy title for the 1650-yard freestyle, the most grueling swimming event. Swimming with a small lead over Princeton's Tara Martin, Gustafsson found herself even with only one lap to go in the 66-lap race. She managed to out-touch Martin by a mere six hundredths of a second, finishing in 16:48.62 over Martin's 16:48.68.

"Starting the last session with Lovisa's swim gave the team so much momentum," said co-captain Corie Calfee. "Any time a mile comes down to a few hundredths, it's going to be exciting. And the way she stuck with the race and pushed herself proved to the rest of us that even if we were tired we could still swim well."

With Gustafsson's triumph, the team finally had an individual title for the season. From the intensity of the team lining the pool's edge, it looked as if it exerted almost as much energy to give Gustafsson the support necessary to bring her the victory.

"The team was tremendous during my swims," Gustafsson said. "Seeing them on every lap certainly kept me going."

Gustafsson sparked team morale in the two other events she made the finals in as well. She placed fifth in both the 200-yard butterfly with a 2:04.85 and the 500-yard freestyle with a 4:57.69.

Junior Pia Chock turned in impressive times of her own in the sprint events, giving her fourth in the 100-yard freestyle with a 52.07, seventh in the 50-yard freestyle with a 24.35 and eighth in the 100-yard fly with a time of 57.18.

Chock was joined as a three-time finalist by another sprinter on the team, sophomore Janna McDougall. McDougall clocked fourth place finishes in both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke, in 24.13 and 58.23, respectively. In addition, she placed seventh in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 52.51.

The sprint corps wasn't the only group on the team to rack up the points for the Crimson. Versatile sophomore Liz Baxter made the finals in three events. She placed fifth in the 200-yard breaststroke with a 2:20.52, sixth in the 100-yard breaststroke with a 1:06.16 and seventh in the 200-yard individual medley with a 2:06.47.

Baxter was just one of the four Crimson breaststrokers, known amongst the team as "The Force," to qualify for the finals of the 100-yard event. She was joined by seniors Calfee and Alexis Todor, as well as freshman Rachael O'Bierne, who placed second, third and fifth, respectively.

"Knowing that we were going to be so strong in that event gave us all a lot of confidence," said Todor, who had personal bests in the event as well as in the 200-yard breaststroke in which she finished second. "We hoped our depth in the event would boost the team spirit."

Another time of team elation came for the aerial magic of junior Ali Shipley, who finished third in both diving events. Shipley performed well amid strong opposition, as Princeton qualified an unprecedented five divers in the finals.

"The divers performed well with the immense pressure they were under," senior Adrienne Leight said. "It was great to see some Crimson amidst the sea of orange and black."

The Crimson made its presence known not only by the divers and the triple-event winners, but through its talented freshmen class as well.

Freshmen Gustafsson, Anna Fraser, Jane Humphries, Victoria Chang and O'Bierne all made the finals in individual events, showing the promise of the young Harvard team in years to come.

"The freshmen add a lot of strength to the team," senior Nancy Jo said.

Jo's sentiments are optimistically echoed by the rest of the team.

"We have a young team right now," Gustafsson said. "This weekend the freshmen showed we are going to be even better during the next seasons."

While Gustafsson and most of the team sees this weekend as a stepping-stone for the team's future success, it also marks the end of the seniors' careers.

Seniors Jo, Leight, Calfee, Todor, Machorek, Ana Cenanovic, Sarah Winfield, Naomi Szekeres and Tracy Thall all waved good-bye to Blodgett Pool this weekend, as their Harvard athletic careers are now officially over.

"This weekend was a great way to finish our careers," Machorek said. "It was very emotional but we had a great time because everyone performed so well."

With this enormous loss, the team will have to rebound in seasons to come.

The Crimson hopes the improvements made this season will help compensate that loss.