NEW YORK CITY--Julio Piazza rode back to LaGuardia Airport on the Harvard team bus. The managers gave him a roast beef sandwich, a package of cupcakes, and a can of soda. The Crimson runners were generally friendly to him. Actually, Piazza, who captained Pennsylvania's cross-country team last year, received much better treatment from Harvard than he and his Quaker teammates accorded the injury ridden Crimson harriers yesterday at Van Cortlandt Park.

Running almost effortlessly, Penn swept the first six places, and 11 of the first 13 to snap Harvard's eight-meet winning skein and hand the Crimson its worst defeat in coach Bill McCurdy's tenure, 15-47.

"It was a beautiful sight," McCurdy admitted moments after Quakers Karl Thornton, Denis Fikes, Dave Merrick and Bob Childs crossed the finish line in a dead heat for first place. "They had the wrong color uniforms, though. Still, I love to see cross-country teams finish like that."

Superb

Pennsylvania, equipped with six superb runners, all nearly equal in talent, employed the same bird-dogging tactics that worked beautifully for the Quakers last year, when they whipped Harvard 20-41. The four victors, plus teammates Frank O'Conner and Piazza, ran as a unit throughout the race, surrounding Harvard sophomore Rick Rojas and captain Mike Koerner, and matching them step for step during the first two miles of the 5.5 mile course.

By the time the runners had reached the footbridge that marks the halfway point, Koerner had slipped to seventh place, 50 yards behind the leaders. Rojas, who won the Northeastern meet three days ago, in his first varsity effort, was still very much in contention running on. Fikes' shoulder in the midst of the rightly bunched Quaker pack.

But the race was already decided--after Koerner came five Penn runners. Crimson veterans Tom New and John Quirk, who were going to have to stay near the leaders if Harvard was to have a chance of breaking up Penn's depth, were tiring badly, and were falling well back of the pace.

Cemetery

At Cemetery Hill, where Harvard had broken Penn three years ago with a mile and a half to go, Thornton, Merrick and Childs began pulling away. Fikes and O'Conner followed, and with less than half a mile remaining, Piazza overtook Rojas as well. Thornton, Fikes, Merrick and Childs finished together in 25:22.8, with O'Conner and Piazza less than 10 seconds behind.

Rojas took seventh in a time of 25:41, and Koerner came next 10 seconds later. The Penn stream continued, however, with Jim Rafferty, Vinny Waite, Elliott Rogers, Frank Krieger and Ken Keehn all coming in ahead of Harvard's third runner, sophomore Fred Linsk. Marshall Jones placed 15th, with New, Quirk, and sophomore Jerry Hines picking up the 17th, 18th, and 19th spots.

Jim Ricciardi, the first finisher from an entirely outmanned Columbia squad, placed 20th. The Lions lost to both Harvard and Penn by identical 15-50 scores.

Services

Harvard was without the services of five runners, including Jeff Brokaw, George Barker, Bob Seals and Mark Connolly, all sidelined by injuries. Linsk, Rojas, Jones and Hines were running in only their second five-mile race.

Harvard would have had serious problems with Penn even if the Crimson was at full strength. In its present condition, the team simply had neither the depth nor the experience to cope with the Quakers at this stage of the season.

Yet Penn is not breathing easily, or at least is claiming not to be. After the halfway point, when it became apparent that only a miracle could save Harvard, Crimson freshman coach Pappy Hunt had a few minutes of light conversation with Penn assistant coach Moon Mondschein.

Jumbo

"You're gonna win the IC4A's" Hunt said. Mondschein protested violently. "Come on who's Jumbo Elliott (Villanova) got that's gonna beat you." Hunt asked.

"Oh, God," moaned Mondschein. "He's got 16 Irishmen that can run forever, I'Crissake." The Quakers are always worrying.