Despite a steady downpour at New York City's Van Cortlandt Park, the Dartmouth men's cross country team yesterday garnered its first Heptagonal title since 1943.

On the strength of one-two-three finish, the Big Green outdistanced Navy, 41-58.

The Harvard men's cross country squad finished third with 59 points, just one point out of second place.

The Crimson's third-place finish equaled the squad's performance of a year ago.

Dartmouth, meanwhile, leapfrogged from a fourth-place finish last year to an impressive victory in this year's 45th annual running of the Heps, cross country's version of an Ivy tournament that also includes Army and Navy.

Senior Jim Sapienza led the Big Green onslaught, covering the five-mile course in 24:23.9, just 10 seconds off the Hepatgonal record.

More important, though, with his victory Sapienza became the first male Ivy runner ever to win three straight individual Hepatagonal championships. The only other harrier ever to win three straight individual Heps titles was Army's Richard Shea in 1949, 1950 and 1951.

Sapienza actually crossed the finish line hand-in-hand with teammate Frank Powers, but race officials gave the victory to the Massachusetts native and second place to Powers.

Senior Mike Fadil completed the Big Green's one-two-three sweep with a 24:45.0 for third place.

Harvard'd first finisher was highly touted junior Paul Gompers, who crossed the line in 24:57.4. That was good enough for fifth place, which also meant All-Ivy honors for the talented Fairview Heights, III. native.

The top five finishers nab first-team All-Ivy spots.