A strong Cornell cross country team handed the previously undefeated Crimson squad its first loss of the season.

Running on a muddy Van Cortland Park course in New York yesterday, the favored Big Red captured first, second, fourth, eighth, and twenty-first places as two sophomores, Dave Eckel and Mike Midler led the field. Pete Reider, who finished fifth, was the first Crimson runner in the five mile race.

Reider ran the course in 26 minutes and 16 seconds, half a minute behind Eckel. The other Crimson runners, Ralph Perry, Al Wills, Dave McLean, and Ken Wilson, came in 11th, 14th, 24th, and 31st respectively. Don French, captain of the harriers, dropped out after the third mile.

By winning yesterday's Heptagonal Championship, Cornell retired the Junius T. Auerbach Memorial Trophy, named in honor of a Cornell graduate. The team, also undefeated at the beginning of the match, proved its ability as a squad with depth. The two sophomores who led the Big Red to victory finished ahead of their teammate Jack Rosenbaum, defending individual champion.

Behind Cornell with 36 points and Harvard with 85 came Yale, Army, Navy, and Penn. Trailing further behind were Princeton, Dartmouth, Columbia, and Brown. However, Doug Brew of the eighth place Hanover team, led the field for the first three and a half miles and finished third, only 20 seconds behind Eckel.

Yale's third place finish was especially surprising in the light of their poor showing in the big three meet last Saturday.