It was a disappointing afternoon for the Harvard men's and women's cross country teams at the Heptagonal Championship Meet at Van Cortlandt Park, N.Y., yesterday.

The women looked to challenge for the title, but placed third behind Yale and Dartmouth. The men continued to struggle, coming away with only a sixth place finish as Dartmouth captured the title.

The one bright spot for Harvard was junior Suzanne Jones, who won the women's race with a time of 17:25, her best time of the season for the 3.1-mile course.

Jones finished second at last week's HYP's in Princeton, N.J., behind Yale senior Susannah Beck. Yesterday, Jones out-dueled Beck en route to a 22-second victory. Beck had to settle for second-place honors.

"As a team, we didn't run as well as we wanted to, but I was pleased with my performance," Jones said. "Being beaten last week probably helped me this week. I was really motivated to win."

Jones wasn't the only Harvard runner looking for revenge against the Eli, who squeaked by the Crimson at the HYP's. But Yale was too strong forHarvard.

"It was a frustrating day," added senior RomneyResney. "A few people felt they could have donebetter."

Senior Jody Dushay placed seventh overall andsecond for Harvard with a time of 17:57. TheHarvard too five was rounded out by rookies RachelLewis (18:31) and Ellen Villa (19:05) andsophomore Teri Dillingham (19:18).

The men, hoping to turn their season aroundafter earlier losses to Dartmouth, Brown and Yale,were unable to place a runner in the top 20. Yalejunior Jim Gibson won the men's race with anoutstanding time of 24:43 on one of the toughestfive-mile courses on the East Coast.

The top man for Harvard was junior RobertBenjamin, who has placed consistently for theCrimson throughout the season. He finished with atime of 26:04.

"We went out hard," Benjamin said. "It was anextremely fast first mile, but we kind of fellapart after that. We didn't really run as a team."

Junior Todd Wells finished next for Harvardwith a time of 26:09. He was followed by juniorAndrew Webster (26:18) and senior John Lewis(26:26).

Harvard's next race is the IC4A/District 1Championships, which is a qualifier for thenationals. The odds of Harvard's qualifying maynot appear all that great, but the Crimson isn'tgiving up yet.

"We have to keep our heads up and come back,"Benjamin said