NEW YORK, Nov. 6-Harvard took four of the top 11 places in this afternoon's Heptagonals in Van Cortland Park to beat highly rated Penn and Cornell and thus retain the Heps trophy for the fourth straight year.

"We should have done this to them the first time," Coach Bill McCurdy told his team afterwards. The win avenged a decisive dual meet loss to Penn on Van Cortland last month. Today Harvard had 46 points to Penn's 69 and Cornell's 88.

The difference this afternoon was essentially the toughness of the Crimson's sophomores during the middle part of this course, which has been a continual source of frustration for them with its hills and winding paths. George Barker, John Quirk, and Mark Connolly all moved well through those sections to provide Harvard the depth which led to victory.

Captain Tom Spengler was once again his team's top finisher, but he had to settle for a distant second behind Cornell's Jon Anderson, who was only four seconds off the course record.

Spengler's performance, however, was a big relief since an old hip injury recurred this past week, forcing him to take time off and causing concern that it might act up today. But Spengler said he felt no pain.

He and teammate Bob Seals were two of six sharing the lead at the mile point, while a corps of Penn runners dominated the second group, and Harvard's other men held back even further. Others in the front were the Quakers' Karl Thornton and three Cornell harriers-Phil Ritson, Don Alexander, and Anderson.

In the hills, Ritson fell way back, ending his team's chance for a victory. Seals also fell back after two miles, but the three Crimson sophomores, especially Barker, who took over the fifth spot, more than compensated for the places he lost.

By the three-mile point the order was close to what it was at the finish line two miles later, and McCurdy figured his team had the victory, the one he's been shooting for the last month. As the race went on, he said he was thinking only about how large the point spread would be.