The Harvard women's track team had it all: a national superstar, a do-it-all point scorer and a bevy of dedicated performers. The result was the most success the program has seen since 1994.

A third-place showing at indoor Heptagonals, the equivalent of the Ivy Championship, was satisfying. Even better was the second place at outdoor Heps.

Several headline performers, experienced senior leadership and a phenomenal sophomore class made this year one of the best in recent Harvard history.

Last year, Harvard finished fifth indoors and sixth outdoors.

"We really saw the sophomores come into their own," co-captain Margaret Schotte said. "We knew we had a fantastic group of women that now had time to adjust. Also, we have developed a bigger team perspective, and people are now doing more events."

Two stars led the way. Sophomore Dora Gyorffy continued to impress on the national stage in the high jump. She finished second at prestigious Penn Relays and second at the indoor national championships as well. She has a chance to add to that record at the outdoor NCAA championships.

Joining her was sophomore Brenda Taylor, whose versatility might have over-shadowed her expertise at the 400-meter hurdles. She also qualified for outdoor nationals.

In the outdoor dual meet with Yale, Taylor won the 100 and 400 hurdles, finished second in the 100 and ran in the winning 4x100 and 4x400 relays.

At Penn Relays, Taylor was involved in two school record-breaking performances. She had already set the school record in the 55-meter hurdles, at indoor Heptagonals.

At outdoor Heps, Taylor's versatility reached new levels. She won the 100-meter high hurdles and the 400 hurdles, the latter in a meet record of 59.66 seconds. She ran the second leg mile relay, which captured first place, collected second in the 100-meter and ran the second leg on the third-place 4x100 team.

Harvard also consistently got points from its 4x400 team, the best in school history.

Co-captain Heather Hanson, Taylor, senior Lee Shearer, and sophomore Marna Schutte ran a phenomenal 3:42.84 at Penn Relays. It also ran 3:43.74 on a windy day at outdoor Heps for a meet record. The team posted the top three times ever at Harvard this spring.

"The mile relay was so close to setting an Ivy League record [3:42.71] at Penn and keeps breaking their school record every time they step foot on the track," Schotte said.

The track year began slowly with cross-country. The team placed fourth at the Fordham Invitational, but losses to Princeton and Yale and an eighth place finish out of the nine teams at Heps left a bad taste in the team's mouth.

"It was a season with a lot of fairly serious injuries, bad flukish ankle turns, stress fractures and stuff like that," said Schotte, who also captained the cross-country team.