Penn Favored in Heps; Harriers Hope for 3rd

Penn is the clear favorite today in the 33rd annual running of the Heptagonal cross country meet at Van Cortland Park in New York City. The race will begin at 2 p.m.

Penn, with a 10-1 mark on the year, may have some competition from a strong Cornell squad.

Harvard (7-3 on the year) will be battling with four other teams for third place. Also running are Navy, Army, Dartmouth and Princeton. The Crimson narrowly defeated Dartmouth, 26-29, but lost to the Tigers by an identical score. Harvard has not met either of the academics.

A Penn win is almost certain. "It should be Penn in a walk-in," Crimson coach Bill McCurdy said yesterday from Yonkers, N.Y., where the team spent the night. "You never know what will happen in a championship meet, but if you want to be dispassionate about it, it'll be Penn followed by Cornell."

Penn met with defeat for the first time last Saturday at the hands of Villanova in the annual Big Five championships. The Quakers, who had shut out the first 10 teams they faced, could not match the Vilanova's top three runners, Marty Liquori, Don Walsh and Dave Wright, who took the first three places.

But Penn did have 12 of the first 18 finishers.

Quaking Leaders

The Quakers leading runners are Dave Merrick, Karl Thornton and Bob Childs. Merrick was Penn's first runner across the line against Villanova, finishing fourth in 25:35, breaking the school record by 26 seconds. Thornton took fifth place in 25:47, also breaking the record.

Cornell has a 7-0 record. The Big Red has not met Penn, however. Last Saturday, the Cornell squad downed Army 11-42, Phil Ritson, Don Alexander, Phil Collins and Tim Cahill all broke the tape together for first place. They were timed at 25:22.5 on Cornell's 5.0 mile Moakley course.

Man to Beat

Another "man to beat" in the race will be Harvard's own, Capt. Mike Koerner. Koerner has paced the Crimson since the Ric Rojas fell with the flu early in the season. Koerner has held onto first since Rojas' return.

As of last night, Rojas was nowhere to be found in Yonkers; McCurdy said be had apparently missed the bus. Assistant coach Ed Stowell was left behind in Cambridge to locate Rojas, who is central to the Crimson victory strategy.