ITHACA, N.Y.--The Cornell cross country team forgot to pick up Harvard Captain Mike Koerner at the medical boards Saturday. Then the team's top three men left the Crimson runners and everybody else in the race behind. Finally, four Harvard runners ran their best race all year.

It all added up to a Cornell win in the cross country meet here on Saturday. The final score was 23-32.

Cornell's Phil Ritson broke the Moakley course record of 25:13.8 set just two weeks ago by teammate Phil Collins, Ritson, who ran first in the meet, was clocked at 25:08.1.

Ritson was far out in front for the entire race. After less than one mile, he was approximately 50 feet ahead of teammate Capt. Don Alexander. Alexander and Collins were far ahead of the first Harvard runner, Fred Linsk, for the entire race.

Alexander finished in 25:39 and Collins in 25:49. Linsk was clocked 26:26.

Linsk was followed throughout the race by Crimson runners Marshall Jones, who finished in 26:46, and Jere Hines, who ran the course in 26:48.

The only real contest was for seventh place in the race. Cornell's Mark Lester and Bob Anastasio ran seventh and eighth for most of the run.

However, in the last mile, Harvard's Tom New came alive, passed Lester and Anastasio and finished seventh in 26:53. The two Cornell runners finished eighth and ninth. Lester ran a 27:04, with Anastasio right behind at 27:07, Harvard's John Quirk rounded out the scoring.

Crimson Coach Bill McCurdy said he was not too disappointed with the Crimson's performance. "Not only couldn't Rojas and Koerner run; much of the rest of the team was ailing from the flu," he said. He was particularly pleased with the performances of Linsk, Jones and Hines, and with Tom New's comeback running.

The Harvard showing against Cornell, considered to be Penn's leading rival in the Ivy League, was far more impressive than the team's performance against the Quakers.

In particular, the coming into their own of sophomores Linsk and Hines and the steady development of Marshall Jones has been especially heartening. The case of Koerner was particularly mysterious. An aspiring doctor, he took the medical boards early Saturday morning at Cornell. The Cornell cross country team managers and coaches promised to pick up Koerner when they picked up their own at the boards.

The case of Koerner was particularly mysterious. An aspiring doctor, he took the medical boards early Saturday morning at Cornell. The Cornell cross country team managers and coaches promised to pick up Koerner when they picked up their own at the boards.

The time at which the race was scheduled to begin arrived, but Koerner didn't. The Redmen agreed to postpone the start of the race until Koerner could be located. A sportswriter lent Harvard manager Terry Downs a car, and he was off to the rescue.

He eventually found Koerner and brought him back. Five minutes after Koerner arrived, the race started. And five minutes after the race started, Koerner was forced to drop out. Already suffering from the virus which has affected a large portion of the team, Koerner saw his condition made worse by a very past pace coupled with his lack of warm-up time.

Ric Rojas was unable to make the trip to Ithaca because he, too, was suffering from a bed case of the virus.

Freshmen Romp

Coach Pappy Hunt's freshmen romped to victory over the Cornell JV team. The yardlings took the first four places and sixth place, too, on their way to a 16-39 victory. The Crimson's Jim Keefe and Jim Hughes tied for first place, running the course in 27-06.